osmapiR
osmapiR is the rare API client that tracks its server's wiki revision numbers in the changelog.
Comparison · Analytics
osmextract vs waywiser
A side-by-side editorial comparison of osmextract and waywiser — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
osmextract vs waywiser: at a glance
What is osmextract?
osmextract stopped throwing your OpenStreetMap downloads away at the end of every session.
osmextract downloads OpenStreetMap extracts from Geofabrik, BBBike and openstreetmap.fr and translates them into sf objects via GDAL. The 0.6.0 release moved its download cache from `tempdir()` to a persistent `tools::R_user_dir()` location and raised the R floor to 4.1.0 to get it. It also made spatial `place` inputs self-clipping: pass an sf or bbox object and the boundary is now set to match, so only the relevant slice of a country-sized extract is processed.
What is waywiser?
Spatial model assessment that spent the last year on cross-platform arithmetic and CRAN rules.
waywiser provides spatial model assessment metrics in a tidymodels idiom — spatial autocorrelation measures, area of applicability, and multi-scale assessment of predictions. The substantive work landed in 0.3.0 through 0.5.0, and the recent releases are consolidation: 0.6.0 made metric functions return NA everywhere they previously returned NaN, because macOS disagreed with every other platform, and taught ww_multi_scale() to handle classification and class probability metrics correctly when given rasters. The three releases since are entirely CRAN policy compliance — no internet downloads during checks, no writing to directories, no syntax that would raise the R version floor.
osmextract vs waywiser: editorial side-by-side
osmextract
0.0ANALYTICS
osmextract stopped throwing your OpenStreetMap downloads away at the end of every session.
◆ Current state
osmextract downloads OpenStreetMap extracts from Geofabrik, BBBike and openstreetmap.fr and translates them into sf objects via GDAL. The 0.6.0 release moved its download cache from `tempdir()` to a persistent `tools::R_user_dir()` location and raised the R floor to 4.1.0 to get it. It also made spatial `place` inputs self-clipping: pass an sf or bbox object and the boundary is now set to match, so only the relevant slice of a country-sized extract is processed.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through every release. One is chasing GDAL — SQL syntax adjusted for 3.10, ogr2ogr options fixed for 3.9, and an `osmconf.ini` that 0.6.0 finally keeps automatically in sync with whatever sf or GDAL provides rather than shipping a snapshot. The other is the road-network extraction added experimentally in 0.3.1, which has been quietly accumulating real routing semantics since: `access = no` links retained when the mode-specific tag permits them, a `oneway` column by default for driving, and `motor_vehicle` always included.
◆ Prediction
Given that `oe_get_network()` has gained transport-mode detail in three separate releases while remaining flagged as experimental, the next substantive work is most likely there — either more modes or a formal exit from experimental status.
waywiser
0.0ANALYTICS
Spatial model assessment that spent the last year on cross-platform arithmetic and CRAN rules.
◆ Current state
waywiser provides spatial model assessment metrics in a tidymodels idiom — spatial autocorrelation measures, area of applicability, and multi-scale assessment of predictions. The substantive work landed in 0.3.0 through 0.5.0, and the recent releases are consolidation: 0.6.0 made metric functions return NA everywhere they previously returned NaN, because macOS disagreed with every other platform, and taught ww_multi_scale() to handle classification and class probability metrics correctly when given rasters. The three releases since are entirely CRAN policy compliance — no internet downloads during checks, no writing to directories, no syntax that would raise the R version floor.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has reached the point where the interesting bugs are cross-platform and cross-package rather than statistical. Its main function, ww_multi_scale(), has been the focus of nearly every release since 0.4.0, working through units handling, aggregation ordering, raster inputs and metric-type dispatch. The dependency on vip and the tidymodels metric machinery means a share of releases exist only to track breaking changes elsewhere.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next substantive release to continue on ww_multi_scale() edge cases, given that it has absorbed most of the fixes in this window. The recent run of CRAN-compliance patches suggests no feature work is currently in flight.
Alternatives to osmextract and waywiser
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 osmextract or waywiser.
ymlthis
ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.
forestly
forestly built an interactive safety review tool, then taught it to produce submission-ready RTF.
pharmaverseadam
pharmaverseadam is the pharmaverse's test-data mirror, and it now covers neurology.
pkglite
pkglite's whole job is knowing which files in an R package are text — and it keeps getting better at guessing.
gMCPLite
gMCPLite exists to be gMCP without Java, and its releases guard that boundary rather than extend it.
See all osmextract alternatives → · See all waywiser alternatives →
Recent activity from osmextract and waywiser
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agoosmextractDownloads move to a persistent cache outside tempdir ⚡
- 1y agowaywiserStops downloading data during CRAN checks
- 1y agoosmextractoe_match gains a version argument for historical extracts
- 1y agowaywiserVignettes no longer write to CRAN directories
- 1y agowaywiserKeeps the R version floor below 4.1
- 1y agoosmextractRouting semantics sharpen for driving and restricted-access links
- 2y agowaywiserNaN results become NA; raster metrics dispatch correctly
- 2y agoosmextract51 new openstreetmap.fr regions and a GDAL 3.9 fix
- 2y agowaywiserGuards against ignored grid arguments; faster on sf data
- 2y agowaywiserFixes wrong observation counts and ignored grid units
- 3y agoosmextractNon-Geofabrik downloads were saved under the wrong filename
- 3y agoosmextractHelp files regenerated for valid HTML5
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between osmextract and waywiser?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. osmextract and waywiser 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 osmextract better than waywiser?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. osmextract and waywiser 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 osmextract?
Top osmextract alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "osmextract alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/osmextract for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to waywiser?
Top waywiser alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "waywiser alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/waywiser for the full list with editorial commentary on each.