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qtl2 vs r-owidapi

A side-by-side editorial comparison of qtl2 and r-owidapi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Shared themes:r-package

qtl2 vs r-owidapi: at a glance

Featureqtl2r-owidapi
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score2.52.5
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesqtl-mapping, statistical-genetics, bioinformatics, r-packageopen-data, our-world-in-data, r-package, api-wrapper
Last editorial update1h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is qtl2?

The standard QTL mapping package in R opened its genome scan to user-supplied likelihood models.

qtl2 is the R toolkit for QTL mapping in experimental crosses, covering genotype probability calculation, genome scans with and without polygenic effects, permutation testing, SNP association, and the plotting that goes with them. The last year of work has pushed hard in two directions: tooling for high-throughput expression and protein QTL studies, and a generalisation of the scan engine itself so the log-likelihood being maximised can be supplied by the user. Note that the release history reached this feed out of order, so feed position is not a reliable guide to which release came first.

Read the full qtl2 trajectory →

What is r-owidapi?

The R client for Our World in Data found its search had been reading a tenth of the catalog.

owidapi is a small R client for Our World in Data, covering chart data retrieval, metadata, the full chart catalog, and search over it, with experimental Shiny output helpers. It is three releases old and the most recent one is almost entirely repair: the catalog function was silently truncating at 1000 rows because of a Datasette row cap, which meant search had been operating on a fraction of what exists.

Read the full r-owidapi trajectory →

qtl2 vs r-owidapi: editorial side-by-side

Q
qtl2
ANALYTICS
2.5

The standard QTL mapping package in R opened its genome scan to user-supplied likelihood models.

◆ Current state

qtl2 is the R toolkit for QTL mapping in experimental crosses, covering genotype probability calculation, genome scans with and without polygenic effects, permutation testing, SNP association, and the plotting that goes with them. The last year of work has pushed hard in two directions: tooling for high-throughput expression and protein QTL studies, and a generalisation of the scan engine itself so the log-likelihood being maximised can be supplied by the user. Note that the release history reached this feed out of order, so feed position is not a reliable guide to which release came first.

◆ Where it's heading

The eQTL and pQTL direction is the clearest thread — cis-trans plots, hotspot counting over a sliding window, multi-trait scan heat maps, and genome-wide genotype plots all arrived together, which is the toolkit an experiment with thousands of traits needs rather than one with a handful. Running underneath it is a steady generalisation of the core: a scan function that accepts an arbitrary likelihood, permutations that work with alternative scan functions, full variance-covariance output from single-position fits. Performance and parallelism get attention each cycle, including a more considerate default that leaves one core free. The rest is the ordinary maintenance of a long-lived package — renames to avoid tidyverse collisions, compiler warnings, and correctness fixes on specific cross types.

◆ Prediction

With scan1gen and permutation support for alternative scan functions in place, the natural next step is more model types built on that hook rather than more special-cased scan functions; the entries do not indicate which models are planned.

R
r-owidapi
ANALYTICS
2.5

The R client for Our World in Data found its search had been reading a tenth of the catalog.

◆ Current state

owidapi is a small R client for Our World in Data, covering chart data retrieval, metadata, the full chart catalog, and search over it, with experimental Shiny output helpers. It is three releases old and the most recent one is almost entirely repair: the catalog function was silently truncating at 1000 rows because of a Datasette row cap, which meant search had been operating on a fraction of what exists.

◆ Where it's heading

Development is about making a thin wrapper trustworthy against an upstream that moves without notice. The truncation fix pages through the catalog properly; a separate fix stops the function breaking when Our World in Data dropped a column, by parsing typed columns only when present. Tests moved to mocked responses, with a small live suite retained purely to detect schema drift and skipped on CRAN — a sensible design for a package whose main risk is that the API changes shape rather than that the code is wrong. The user-facing surface has not grown since the initial release; the work is in defending it.

◆ Prediction

On this pattern the next release is likelier to be another upstream-compatibility fix than new functionality, with the schema-drift tests the mechanism that surfaces it.

Alternatives to qtl2 and r-owidapi

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 qtl2 or r-owidapi.

See all qtl2 alternatives → · See all r-owidapi alternatives →

Recent activity from qtl2 and r-owidapi

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

  1. 20d agor-owidapiCatalog was silently capped at 1000 charts; now paged in full
  2. 27d agoqtl2chr_lengths() extended to cross2 objects
  3. 1mo agoqtl2A genome scan that takes your own likelihood function
  4. 2mo agoqtl2Hotspot counting and cis-trans plots for eQTL studies
  5. 3mo agoqtl2Confidence interval plotting, plus a documentation correction
  6. 1y agor-owidapiRequest logic consolidated, with graceful catalog errors
  7. 1y agoqtl2Finer-grained parallelism for kinship-based scans
  8. 1y agoqtl2CSV readers renamed to avoid the readr collision
  9. 1y agor-owidapiFirst release: data, metadata, catalog and search

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between qtl2 and r-owidapi?

Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. qtl2 and r-owidapi are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, 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 qtl2 better than r-owidapi?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. qtl2 and r-owidapi are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, 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 qtl2?

Top qtl2 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qtl2 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qtl2 for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to r-owidapi?

Top r-owidapi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "r-owidapi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/r-owidapi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.