compositional.mle
An MLE package rebuilt around composable solvers, then renamed to match.
Comparison · Analytics
nabla vs tidycmprsk
A side-by-side editorial comparison of nabla and tidycmprsk — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
nabla vs tidycmprsk: at a glance
What is nabla?
nabla dropped its C++ engine to chase exact derivatives at any order.
nabla does forward-mode automatic differentiation in R using dual numbers, returning derivatives exact to machine precision rather than approximated by finite differences. It shipped as dualr in January 2026, then a day later released 0.5.0 under a changed identity: derivatives generalise from a hardcoded second order to arbitrary order through recursive nesting, and the Rcpp and C++ fast paths are deleted so the package is pure R. The current release, 0.7.1, is CRAN resubmission cleanup.
What is tidycmprsk?
Competing-risks modelling that now moves only when its neighbours do.
tidycmprsk wraps competing risks regression and cumulative incidence estimation in tidy-style output, so results slot into gtsummary tables and ggsurvfit plots. The last two releases are small: 1.1.2 sorts tidy.tidycuminc() output by stratum, 1.1.1 is an HTML5 documentation update for CRAN. The substantive work in the window is 1.1.0, which reorganised the gtsummary relationship.
nabla vs tidycmprsk: editorial side-by-side
nabla
0.0ANALYTICS
nabla dropped its C++ engine to chase exact derivatives at any order.
◆ Current state
nabla does forward-mode automatic differentiation in R using dual numbers, returning derivatives exact to machine precision rather than approximated by finite differences. It shipped as dualr in January 2026, then a day later released 0.5.0 under a changed identity: derivatives generalise from a hardcoded second order to arbitrary order through recursive nesting, and the Rcpp and C++ fast paths are deleted so the package is pure R. The current release, 0.7.1, is CRAN resubmission cleanup.
◆ Where it's heading
The 0.5.0 release note states the positioning explicitly: exact machine-precision derivatives at any order, not speed. Removing compiled code to make that claim coherent is an unusual direction, most numerical R packages move the other way, and it commits the package to a niche where correctness beats throughput. The old second-order API survives as deprecated thin wrappers, so the pivot was made without stranding early users. The rapid rename and version jump suggest identity was settled late.
◆ Prediction
Expect CRAN acceptance to be followed by work on the optimiser and MLE integration paths, where arbitrary-order derivatives have the clearest use.
tidycmprsk
0.0ANALYTICS
Competing-risks modelling that now moves only when its neighbours do.
◆ Current state
tidycmprsk wraps competing risks regression and cumulative incidence estimation in tidy-style output, so results slot into gtsummary tables and ggsurvfit plots. The last two releases are small: 1.1.2 sorts tidy.tidycuminc() output by stratum, 1.1.1 is an HTML5 documentation update for CRAN. The substantive work in the window is 1.1.0, which reorganised the gtsummary relationship.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has spent its releases handing responsibilities to neighbouring packages rather than growing its own surface. Plotting was deprecated then made defunct in favour of ggsurvfit::ggcuminc(), and 1.1.0 moved the regression table methods so that gtsummary could drop tidycmprsk as a dependency. What remains is the estimation core plus the S3 methods that let other packages consume it, which is a deliberate narrowing.
◆ Prediction
Expect releases to continue tracking changes in gtsummary and the broader tidy survival stack rather than adding estimation features.
Alternatives to nabla and tidycmprsk
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either nabla or tidycmprsk.
snowflakeauth
Eight months from first release to keyring caching and workload identity.
kwb.geosalz
A research-project workflow package where the interesting work is in the plumbing.
cyclocomp
A cyclomatic complexity checker that ships once every couple of years, and lands when it does.
revdbayes
Extreme value sampling in pure upkeep mode, mostly answering to Rcpp and CRAN.
lazyeval
A package retired in 2017 just got rewritten against R's public C API.
See all nabla alternatives → · See all tidycmprsk alternatives →
Recent activity from nabla and tidycmprsk
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 1.1.2
- 5mo agonablaCRAN resubmission cleanup after reviewer feedback
- 6mo agonablaArbitrary-order exact derivatives arrive; compiled code removed ⚡
- 6mo agonablaFirst release as dualr: dual-number autodiff with MLE helpers
- 9mo agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 1.1.1
- 1y agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 1.1.0
- 2y agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 1.0.0
- 3y agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 0.2.0
- 4y agotidycmprsktidycmprsk 0.1.2
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between nabla and tidycmprsk?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. nabla and tidycmprsk are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is nabla better than tidycmprsk?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. nabla and tidycmprsk are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to nabla?
Top nabla alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nabla alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nabla for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidycmprsk?
Top tidycmprsk alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidycmprsk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidycmprsk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.