pr2database
The protist reference database keeps widening past the rRNA gene it was built on.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
prioritizr vs selection.index
A side-by-side editorial comparison of prioritizr and selection.index — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
prioritizr vs selection.index: at a glance
What is prioritizr?
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
prioritizr builds and solves systematic conservation planning problems, handing them to CBC, HiGHS, Gurobi or SYMPHONY. The last two years moved it onto the sf and terra spatial stack and rewrote its internals as R6 classes; the newest release adds a target-setting layer with seventeen named methods from the conservation literature, plus automatic penalty calibration. Solver control parameters and neighbour penalties arrive in the same release.
What is selection.index?
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
prioritizr vs selection.index: editorial side-by-side
prioritizr
0.0INFRA · APIS
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
◆ Current state
prioritizr builds and solves systematic conservation planning problems, handing them to CBC, HiGHS, Gurobi or SYMPHONY. The last two years moved it onto the sf and terra spatial stack and rewrote its internals as R6 classes; the newest release adds a target-setting layer with seventeen named methods from the conservation literature, plus automatic penalty calibration. Solver control parameters and neighbour penalties arrive in the same release.
◆ Where it's heading
The package keeps absorbing decisions that used to sit with the analyst. Targets were something you computed and passed in; now add_auto_targets() takes a method specification and the published rules from Jung, Rodrigues, Ward, Watson and Wilson are first-class objects. Penalty values were tuned by hand; calibrate_cohon_penalty() searches for them. The same instinct shows in exporting its validation helpers for other packages to vendor.
◆ Prediction
The deprecation of add_loglinear_targets() in favour of a spec function suggests the older manual target helpers are next to be folded into the same interface.
selection.index
0.0INFRA · APIS
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
◆ Current state
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
◆ Where it's heading
The first version series added one function at a time — combinatorial indices, then genetic advance, then mean performance under randomised block designs — against a fixed phenotypic framing. Version 2.0.0 abandons that framing rather than extending it. Genomic and marker information become inputs the package understands, multi-cycle simulation becomes a built-in toolset, and the old combinatorial entry points are replaced by a named lpsi(). The 2.0.1 follow-up is entirely CI and numerical-stability work, which reads like a maintainer bracing a much larger surface.
◆ Prediction
A seventeen-runner CI matrix mirroring every CRAN check flavour, added days after 2.0.0, says the immediate concern is keeping a compiled multi-family package green rather than adding to it. Expect stabilisation releases before anything new.
Alternatives to prioritizr and selection.index
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 prioritizr or selection.index.
ggalign
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
trackeR
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
See all prioritizr alternatives → · See all selection.index alternatives →
Recent activity from prioritizr and selection.index
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agoselection.indexCI expanded to 17 runners after the 2.0.0 rewrite
- 5mo agoselection.indexGenomic, marker and multi-stage selection indices on an Rcpp core ⚡
- 6mo agoselection.indexUnspecified general performance improvements
- 9mo agoprioritizradd_auto_targets() brings 17 published target-setting methods ⚡
- 2y agoprioritizrDefault portfolio no longer shuffles the optimization problem
- 2y agoselection.indexMean performance for randomised block designs
- 3y agoprioritizrBoundary data rescaling reworked to avoid optimization artifacts
- 3y agoprioritizrMoves to sf and terra; internals rewritten as R6 classes ⚡
- 3y agoselection.indexsel.index() and sel.score.rank() removed for comb.indices()
- 3y agoprioritizrmaptools, PBSmapping and rgeos dropped as dependencies
- 4y agoprioritizrVignette build fixes and lpsymphony remote setup
- 4y agoselection.indexGenetic advance calculation added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between prioritizr and selection.index?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. prioritizr and selection.index 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 prioritizr better than selection.index?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. prioritizr and selection.index 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 prioritizr?
Top prioritizr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "prioritizr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/prioritizr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to selection.index?
Top selection.index alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "selection.index alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/selection-index for the full list with editorial commentary on each.