simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
NHSRwaitinglist vs splines2
A side-by-side editorial comparison of NHSRwaitinglist and splines2 — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
NHSRwaitinglist vs splines2: at a glance
What is NHSRwaitinglist?
Queuing theory packaged for NHS waiting-list managers, one year into a community-built first release.
NHSRwaitinglist turns queuing-theory methods into functions an NHS analyst can apply directly to a waiting list — target calculations for managing list size, simulation of list behaviour under different assumptions, and scheduling and prioritisation helpers. It is an NHS-R Community collaboration accompanying a preprint tutorial and webinar series, and reached CRAN in April 2025.
What is splines2?
Spline bases built to interoperate: periodic B-splines and an nsk-compatible natural basis.
splines2 provides spline basis functions with their derivatives and integrals, in R and through an Rcpp interface. The 0.5.0 release in mid-2023 set the package's current surface; the four releases since are a correctness fix for natural cubic splines with one internal knot, a plotting argument, a compiler warning, and a documentation repair.
NHSRwaitinglist vs splines2: editorial side-by-side
NHSRwaitinglist
0.0ANALYTICS
Queuing theory packaged for NHS waiting-list managers, one year into a community-built first release.
◆ Current state
NHSRwaitinglist turns queuing-theory methods into functions an NHS analyst can apply directly to a waiting list — target calculations for managing list size, simulation of list behaviour under different assumptions, and scheduling and prioritisation helpers. It is an NHS-R Community collaboration accompanying a preprint tutorial and webinar series, and reached CRAN in April 2025.
◆ Where it's heading
Three releases in four months trace a normal early-package path: ship the method surface, then harmonise arguments and column handling across functions as contributors find the inconsistencies, then repair what breaks. The package was briefly pulled from CRAN over broken links and needed a date-handling fix for newer R versions, which is the sharper edge of that curve. Contributions are visibly multi-author, with named contributors driving the usability work rather than a single maintainer.
◆ Prediction
Given the pattern of contributor-driven consistency fixes and the tutorial paper behind the package, further vignettes and argument harmonisation are the most likely next release. The entries do not indicate new queuing methods being added.
splines2
0.0ANALYTICS
Spline bases built to interoperate: periodic B-splines and an nsk-compatible natural basis.
◆ Current state
splines2 provides spline basis functions with their derivatives and integrals, in R and through an Rcpp interface. The 0.5.0 release in mid-2023 set the package's current surface; the four releases since are a correctness fix for natural cubic splines with one internal knot, a plotting argument, a compiler warning, and a documentation repair.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is interoperability rather than new mathematics. 0.5.0 added nsk() to match survival::nsk(), an H matrix for converting cubic B-splines produced elsewhere into this package's natural splines, and short aliases meant to be typed inside model formulas. Periodic B-splines were the one genuinely new basis, and its Rcpp knot-sequence handling needed a follow-up fix. Wenjie Wang maintains it alongside intsurv and reda.
◆ Prediction
The last four releases are all corrections, so the next one most likely continues that pattern; a further basis type would break a two-year run of consolidation.
Alternatives to NHSRwaitinglist and splines2
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 NHSRwaitinglist or splines2.
lavaanExtra
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
See all NHSRwaitinglist alternatives → · See all splines2 alternatives →
Recent activity from NHSRwaitinglist and splines2
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoNHSRwaitinglistDate-handling fix and input checks restore CRAN listing
- 1y agoNHSRwaitinglistArguments harmonised across functions; simulation vignette added
- 1y agoNHSRwaitinglistFirst release: queuing-theory methods for NHS waiting lists
- 1y agosplines2Natural cubic splines fixed for a single internal knot
- 2y agosplines2C++20 constructor template warning suppressed
- 2y agosplines2plot() accepts a coefficient vector
- 2y agosplines2Broken package-level documentation repaired
- 3y agosplines2Periodic B-splines, nsk(), and a basis conversion matrix ⚡
- 3y agosplines2Periodic M-spline knot sequence fixed in the Rcpp interface
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between NHSRwaitinglist and splines2?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. NHSRwaitinglist and splines2 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 NHSRwaitinglist better than splines2?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. NHSRwaitinglist and splines2 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 NHSRwaitinglist?
Top NHSRwaitinglist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NHSRwaitinglist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nhsrwaitinglist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to splines2?
Top splines2 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "splines2 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/splines2 for the full list with editorial commentary on each.