tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
Comparison · Analytics
paleobuddy vs watina
A side-by-side editorial comparison of paleobuddy and watina — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
paleobuddy vs watina: at a glance
What is paleobuddy?
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
paleobuddy simulates diversification, fossil records and phylogenetic trees, with rates that can be arbitrary functions of time — its founding idea, implemented through rexp.var() generalizing exponential and Weibull draws. The 1.1.0 release adds state-dependent speciation and extinction simulation at roughly MuHiSSE generality, and lets simulations stop at a target number of extant species instead of conditioning on time.
What is watina?
A groundwater database client that has started doing the domain analysis too
watina is the R interface to the Watina groundwater monitoring database, and its history is mostly about making data retrieval correct: filter depths guessed conservatively when missing, spatial masking, aggregation methods per observation well, and a long series of fixes to keep the lazy database queries working across dbplyr versions. The most recent release moves past retrieval into interpretation, adding ionic ratio calculation and a Van Wirdum diagram to plot chemistry data.
paleobuddy vs watina: editorial side-by-side
paleobuddy
0.0ANALYTICS
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
◆ Current state
paleobuddy simulates diversification, fossil records and phylogenetic trees, with rates that can be arbitrary functions of time — its founding idea, implemented through rexp.var() generalizing exponential and Weibull draws. The 1.1.0 release adds state-dependent speciation and extinction simulation at roughly MuHiSSE generality, and lets simulations stop at a target number of extant species instead of conditioning on time.
◆ Where it's heading
Releases track the maintainer's publications rather than a product cadence — 1.0.0 accompanied the MEE manuscript, 1.0.0.1 exists purely as a Zenodo citation anchor, and 1.1.0 is stated as going with a paper on SSE model accuracy for trees including fossil data. That framing sets the direction: the package grows whichever capability the next study needs to test. The stated SSE limits, no quantitative traits and no cladogenetic transitions, mark exactly where that boundary currently sits.
◆ Prediction
Quantitative traits and cladogenetic transitions are named as missing, which makes them the obvious next targets, though on this history the timing will follow a paper rather than a roadmap.
watina
0.0ANALYTICS
A groundwater database client that has started doing the domain analysis too
◆ Current state
watina is the R interface to the Watina groundwater monitoring database, and its history is mostly about making data retrieval correct: filter depths guessed conservatively when missing, spatial masking, aggregation methods per observation well, and a long series of fixes to keep the lazy database queries working across dbplyr versions. The most recent release moves past retrieval into interpretation, adding ionic ratio calculation and a Van Wirdum diagram to plot chemistry data.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is drifting from a database client toward a domain toolkit. Early releases fought the data layer — connection handling moved to inbodb, sorting semantics changed, defunct dbplyr calls worked around. Recent work assumes retrieval is solved and adds hydrochemical analysis on top, along with defensive handling for the physically impossible inputs that analysis exposes, such as zero conductivity in the warehouse.
◆ Prediction
Expect further chemistry analysis and plotting helpers rather than new retrieval functions, since that is where the newest release invested and where the accompanying vignette points.
Alternatives to paleobuddy and watina
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 paleobuddy or watina.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
ggmagnify
A single-purpose ggplot2 inset tool, refining the same three arguments.
symengine
An R symbolic-maths binding whose changelog is really the C++ core's release notes.
gtfstools
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
quantities
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
See all paleobuddy alternatives → · See all watina alternatives →
Recent activity from paleobuddy and watina
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agowatinaIonic ratios and Van Wirdum diagrams for chemistry data
- 1y agopaleobuddypaleobuddy 1.1.0 adds SSE trait-dependent simulation ⚡
- 2y agowatinaKSgeneral moved to Suggests to survive CRAN removal
- 3y agopaleobuddypaleobuddy 1.0.0.1: Zenodo citation release
- 4y agopaleobuddypaleobuddy 1.0.0: first release with time-varying rates
- 5y agowatinaDataframe input restored after a defunct dbplyr call
- 5y agowatinadbplyr 2.0 compatibility drops the need for a forked dependency
- 5y agowatinaSpatial clustering of wells and richer location attributes
- 6y agowatinaSoil surface calculation fixed after a select() dropped the variable
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between paleobuddy and watina?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. paleobuddy and watina 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 paleobuddy better than watina?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. paleobuddy and watina 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 paleobuddy?
Top paleobuddy alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "paleobuddy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/paleobuddy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to watina?
Top watina alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "watina alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/watina-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.