simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
qtl2convert vs rtrek
A side-by-side editorial comparison of qtl2convert and rtrek — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
qtl2convert vs rtrek: at a glance
What is qtl2convert?
A conversion utility in pure maintenance mode, tracking R-devel breakage release by release
qtl2convert is the format-shim of the R/qtl2 ecosystem: it moves genotype probabilities and genetic maps between DOQTL, R/qtl and R/qtl2 representations. The last three releases contain no new conversion functions at all — 0.32 fixed a C string comparison flagged by CRAN, 0.34 restored attribute-clearing that R-devel 4.7 changed underneath the package, and 0.36 adjusted parallel core defaults plus a test tweak. The functional surface has been stable since 0.26 added cross2_ril_to_genril().
What is rtrek?
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
rtrek bundles Star Trek datasets — book series, timelines, episode transcripts, species and homeworlds, map tile sets — and layers live retrieval on top through memory_alpha() and memory_beta() plus their ma_* and mb_* helpers. Recent releases are almost entirely repairs to that retrieval layer as the source wikis change their page structure.
qtl2convert vs rtrek: editorial side-by-side
qtl2convert
0.0ANALYTICS
A conversion utility in pure maintenance mode, tracking R-devel breakage release by release
◆ Current state
qtl2convert is the format-shim of the R/qtl2 ecosystem: it moves genotype probabilities and genetic maps between DOQTL, R/qtl and R/qtl2 representations. The last three releases contain no new conversion functions at all — 0.32 fixed a C string comparison flagged by CRAN, 0.34 restored attribute-clearing that R-devel 4.7 changed underneath the package, and 0.36 adjusted parallel core defaults plus a test tweak. The functional surface has been stable since 0.26 added cross2_ril_to_genril().
◆ Where it's heading
This is a package whose release cadence is driven by its dependencies, not its roadmap. Two of the last three releases exist purely because upstream R or CRAN's check suite moved; the maintainer responds within weeks and ships. The cores=0 change in 0.36 is the only user-visible behavior shift in over a year, and it landed simultaneously in sibling package qtl2fst — this is a maintainer-wide convention change, not a qtl2convert decision.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by another R-devel or CRAN check change rather than a feature request, following the same pattern as 0.32 and 0.34.
rtrek
0.0ANALYTICS
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
◆ Current state
rtrek bundles Star Trek datasets — book series, timelines, episode transcripts, species and homeworlds, map tile sets — and layers live retrieval on top through memory_alpha() and memory_beta() plus their ma_* and mb_* helpers. Recent releases are almost entirely repairs to that retrieval layer as the source wikis change their page structure.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's centre of gravity shifted once, at 0.2.0, from shipping static data to querying Memory Alpha and Memory Beta at runtime. Everything since has been the maintenance bill for that decision: HTML update fixes, parser improvements, portal retrieval bugs. Note that version numbers on this feed do not track time — 0.2.5 is stamped a year before 0.1.0, and three tags were backfilled within four minutes in November 2020 — so neither rank nor version ordering here indicates release sequence.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to fix retrieval against another Memory Alpha layout change, which is what the last four have done. The entries give no indication of new datasets or functions in progress.
Alternatives to qtl2convert and rtrek
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 qtl2convert or rtrek.
lavaanExtra
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
See all qtl2convert alternatives → · See all rtrek alternatives →
Recent activity from qtl2convert and rtrek
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoqtl2convertcores=0 now leaves one core free instead of taking all
- 2mo agoqtl2convertAttribute-clearing fix for R-devel 4.7
- 3mo agoqtl2convertC string comparison fix in encode_geno()
- 1y agortrekMemory Alpha series portal retrieval fix
- 1y agortrekrtrek 0.5.1 release
- 2y agortrekParser improvements for wiki retrieval
- 2y agoqtl2convertBug fix in probs_doqtl_to_qtl2()
- 2y agortrekDead external content and data dependencies removed
- 4y agoqtl2convertMaintenance release for a NEWS.md typo
- 4y agoqtl2convertAdds cross2_ril_to_genril() for RIL cross conversion
- 5y agortrekFixes for source website HTML changes
- 5y agortrekMemory Alpha and Memory Beta web APIs added ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between qtl2convert and rtrek?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. qtl2convert and rtrek 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 qtl2convert better than rtrek?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. qtl2convert and rtrek 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 qtl2convert?
Top qtl2convert alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qtl2convert alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qtl2convert for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rtrek?
Top rtrek alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rtrek alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rtrek for the full list with editorial commentary on each.