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Comparison · Infra & APIs

ordinalsimr vs valr

A side-by-side editorial comparison of ordinalsimr and valr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

ordinalsimr vs valr: at a glance

Featureordinalsimrvalr
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesordinal-data, shiny, simulation, statistical-testsgenomics, interval-arithmetic, bioinformatics, bigwig
Last editorial update2h ago7h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is ordinalsimr?

A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.

ordinalsimr compares ordinal endpoints by simulation — you specify probability distributions, sample sizes and iterations, and it runs the candidate statistical tests against them so you can see which behaves best. It is delivered as a Shiny application with a data-entry grid, and its entire release history spans six days in January 2025: three tags inside 90 minutes on the 20th, then a CRAN-compliance release on the 26th.

Read the full ordinalsimr trajectory →

What is valr?

valr's interval verbs now read genomic files in place instead of demanding a loaded tibble.

valr reimplements bedtools-style genome interval arithmetic as tidyverse verbs backed by C++. Its long project has been closing the behavioural gap with bedtools — the book-ended interval semantics finally match in 0.10.0, three releases after the deprecation began. The July release also ends the assumption that intervals must be in memory: bed_map(), bed_intersect(), bed_subtract(), bed_coverage() and bed_window() accept a bigWig or bigBed path or URL where an interval table used to go.

Read the full valr trajectory →

ordinalsimr vs valr: editorial side-by-side

O
ordinalsimr
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.

◆ Current state

ordinalsimr compares ordinal endpoints by simulation — you specify probability distributions, sample sizes and iterations, and it runs the candidate statistical tests against them so you can see which behaves best. It is delivered as a Shiny application with a data-entry grid, and its entire release history spans six days in January 2025: three tags inside 90 minutes on the 20th, then a CRAN-compliance release on the 26th.

◆ Where it's heading

The release bodies are auto-generated pull-request lists covering the repository's whole history, so they read as a build log rather than a changelog: data entry UI, an rhandsontable statistics module, iteration and sample-size modules, binomial confidence intervals, plot tests, and a rename to the current package name late in development. What that log shows is a single-author project built to completion privately and then published all at once, with the public version history existing mainly to satisfy CRAN.

◆ Prediction

With the CRAN submission accepted and no post-release entries in the feed, the next move is most likely a maintenance release; the PR log gives no signal of planned work beyond the tests already implemented.

V
valr
INFRA · APIS
0.0

valr's interval verbs now read genomic files in place instead of demanding a loaded tibble.

◆ Current state

valr reimplements bedtools-style genome interval arithmetic as tidyverse verbs backed by C++. Its long project has been closing the behavioural gap with bedtools — the book-ended interval semantics finally match in 0.10.0, three releases after the deprecation began. The July release also ends the assumption that intervals must be in memory: bed_map(), bed_intersect(), bed_subtract(), bed_coverage() and bed_window() accept a bigWig or bigBed path or URL where an interval table used to go.

◆ Where it's heading

Two arcs converge here. One is compatibility: min_overlap arrived with a deprecation warning in 0.9.0 and its default flipped from 0 to 1 in 0.10.0, so book-ended intervals are excluded by default as bedtools does, with the internal calculations in bed_closest() and friends deliberately left counting them. The other is the file-backed path, which grew out of the cpp11bigwig dependency adopted in 0.8.3 for read_bigwig() and re-exported in 0.9.0 — reading a file became querying one. Underneath, the C++ base keeps getting lighter: Rcpp swapped for cpp11, rlang cut to a single function, per-group memory copies removed from three verbs.

◆ Prediction

Only five verbs take a file argument today and bed_closest(), bed_glyph() and the statistical verbs do not, so extending the file-backed path across the rest of the API is the obvious follow-up. The deprecated tibble re-exports and the now-defunct n_fields argument suggest continued removal of the compatibility layer in the next minor release.

Alternatives to ordinalsimr and valr

Other Infra & APIs 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 ordinalsimr or valr.

See all ordinalsimr alternatives → · See all valr alternatives →

Recent activity from ordinalsimr and valr

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1mo agovalrInterval verbs read bigWig and bigBed files directly
  2. 7mo agovalrbed_slop() and bed_flank() preserve input row order
  3. 8mo agovalrmin_overlap introduced; C++ backend moves from Rcpp to cpp11
  4. 1y agovalrTest updated for ggplot2 3.6.0
  5. 1y agoordinalsimrv0.1.3 CRAN submission
  6. 1y agoordinalsimrOrdinal endpoint simulator submitted to CRAN
  7. 1y agoordinalsimrREADME refreshed and DOI added to the citation file
  8. 1y agoordinalsimrDevelopment tag ahead of the CRAN submission
  9. 1y agovalrread_bigwig() switches to cpp11bigwig; read_gtf() deprecated
  10. 1y agovalrCRAN Rd link NOTE and maintainer email change

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between ordinalsimr and valr?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ordinalsimr and valr 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 ordinalsimr better than valr?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ordinalsimr and valr 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to ordinalsimr?

Top ordinalsimr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ordinalsimr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ordinalsimr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to valr?

Top valr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "valr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/valr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.