STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
nat.nblast vs rempsyc
A side-by-side editorial comparison of nat.nblast and rempsyc — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
nat.nblast vs rempsyc: at a glance
What is nat.nblast?
The NBLAST neuron-similarity engine is stable code on life support, shipping once every few years.
nat.nblast implements NBLAST, the pairwise neuron-morphology similarity algorithm used across the natverse for matching and clustering traced neurons — nblast(), nhclust() and the scoring-matrix machinery around them. The algorithm and its interface have not changed in a decade of releases; recent work is CRAN compliance and build infrastructure.
What is rempsyc?
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
rempsyc produces APA-formatted tables and figures for psychology research — nice_table() for results tables, plus plotting helpers for scatter plots, violin plots, densities and simple slopes. Its releases are CRAN submissions that bundle a long run of development versions, so each entry reads as a digest rather than a single change. The most recent, 0.2.0, added point labelling and per-group correlation statistics to nice_scatter and fixed nice_lm() failing on factor covariates with more than two levels.
nat.nblast vs rempsyc: editorial side-by-side
nat.nblast
0.0ANALYTICS
The NBLAST neuron-similarity engine is stable code on life support, shipping once every few years.
◆ Current state
nat.nblast implements NBLAST, the pairwise neuron-morphology similarity algorithm used across the natverse for matching and clustering traced neurons — nblast(), nhclust() and the scoring-matrix machinery around them. The algorithm and its interface have not changed in a decade of releases; recent work is CRAN compliance and build infrastructure.
◆ Where it's heading
The four-year gap between 1.6.6 and 1.6.8 says most of it: this is finished code being kept on CRAN rather than a package under development. The 1.6.8 release fixes Rd cross-references and moves continuous integration to GitHub Actions, with no user-facing change at all. The last release that altered numerical output was 1.6.6 in 2021.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases only when CRAN check policy or a natverse dependency forces one. Nothing in these entries suggests algorithmic work is underway.
rempsyc
0.0ANALYTICS
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
◆ Current state
rempsyc produces APA-formatted tables and figures for psychology research — nice_table() for results tables, plus plotting helpers for scatter plots, violin plots, densities and simple slopes. Its releases are CRAN submissions that bundle a long run of development versions, so each entry reads as a digest rather than a single change. The most recent, 0.2.0, added point labelling and per-group correlation statistics to nice_scatter and fixed nice_lm() failing on factor covariates with more than two levels.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces drive this package and neither is its own roadmap. The first is APA style: when the 7th edition advised against beta for standardized coefficients, the package switched its output to italic b with an asterisk. The second is the surrounding ecosystem — formatting is aligned to what lavaanExtra and afex produce, contrast handling was delegated to easystats' modelbased, and Excel correlation matrix export was handed entirely to the correlation package to cut maintenance.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of delegating functionality to specialist packages while keeping the formatting layer is well established and likely continues. Because releases bundle many small dev versions, the next one will probably again mix plotting refinements with fixes surfaced by upstream changes.
Alternatives to nat.nblast and rempsyc
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 nat.nblast or rempsyc.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all nat.nblast alternatives → · See all rempsyc alternatives →
Recent activity from nat.nblast and rempsyc
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agorempsycPoint labels and per-group correlations added to nice_scatter
- 0y agonat.nblastCRAN cross-reference fixes and GitHub Actions setup
- 1y agorempsycExcel correlation export delegated to the correlation package
- 2y agorempsycTable spacing control and a fix for name collision with afex
- 2y agorempsycStandardized coefficients switch to APA 7th edition b* notation
- 2y agorempsycLegend and standardization-check fixes
- 2y agorempsycnice_table starts coercing model objects automatically
- 5y agonat.nblastScale factor retained when normalising scores
- 7y agonat.nblastnhclust accepts score matrices directly
- 7y agonat.nblastR 3.3 compatibility fixes and first vignette
- 11y agonat.nblastPackage test fixes only
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between nat.nblast and rempsyc?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. nat.nblast and rempsyc 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 nat.nblast better than rempsyc?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. nat.nblast and rempsyc 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 nat.nblast?
Top nat.nblast alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nat.nblast alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nat-nblast for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rempsyc?
Top rempsyc alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rempsyc alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rempsyc for the full list with editorial commentary on each.