tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
r2rtf vs rbmi
A side-by-side editorial comparison of r2rtf and rbmi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:pharmaverse
r2rtf vs rbmi: at a glance
What is r2rtf?
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
What is rbmi?
Reference-based multiple imputation for trials, now shipping without Bayesian support by default.
rbmi implements reference-based multiple imputation for longitudinal clinical trial data with missing values — the estimand machinery regulators expect for handling intercurrent events and dropout. The consequential recent change was 1.3.0 moving rstan from a hard dependency to Suggests, which takes Bayesian imputation out of the default install. Since then the work has been documentation and nomenclature discipline: 1.6.1 standardized on MNAR over a mixed NMAR/MNAR vocabulary and deprecated the nmar.rm argument accordingly.
r2rtf vs rbmi: editorial side-by-side
r2rtf
0.0ANALYTICS
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
◆ Current state
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the window. One is output reach: RTF remains the composition target, but the artifacts that come out of it now include DOCX and HTML, and page numbering can be made table-relative across multi-page tables. The other is durability under a moving R and font stack — the ANSI/Unicode converter was rebuilt, the LaTeX mapping table generated from code rather than shipped as sysdata, unlist() usage fixed for R 4.5, and graphics-device leaks that produced stray Rplots.pdf closed off.
◆ Prediction
Having exported DOCX and HTML conversion, the likely next step is filling in what those formats lose relative to RTF — pagination and footnote fidelity are the obvious gaps. The i18n path currently covers Chinese only, so additional font families are the other plausible direction.
rbmi
2.5ANALYTICS
Reference-based multiple imputation for trials, now shipping without Bayesian support by default.
◆ Current state
rbmi implements reference-based multiple imputation for longitudinal clinical trial data with missing values — the estimand machinery regulators expect for handling intercurrent events and dropout. The consequential recent change was 1.3.0 moving rstan from a hard dependency to Suggests, which takes Bayesian imputation out of the default install. Since then the work has been documentation and nomenclature discipline: 1.6.1 standardized on MNAR over a mixed NMAR/MNAR vocabulary and deprecated the nmar.rm argument accordingly.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is optimizing for adoption friction over feature breadth. Dropping a compiled Stan dependency from the default install, deprecating a bespoke seed argument in favor of base set.seed(), and aligning lsmeans() behavior and weight naming with emmeans all point the same direction — behave like a conventional R package rather than a specialized one. Documentation work in 1.6.1 covering @return on every exported function and executable examples reads as preparation for validation scrutiny rather than user demand.
◆ Prediction
Given the FAQ vignette's validation statement and the recent documentation completeness pass, the next work is more likely qualification and estimand documentation than new imputation methods.
Alternatives to r2rtf and rbmi
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 r2rtf or rbmi.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
Recent activity from r2rtf and rbmi
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 22d agorbmiMNAR nomenclature standardized, documentation completed
- 7mo agor2rtfDOCX and HTML output become exported functions
- 11mo agor2rtfChinese character support arrives via an i18n font path ⚡
- 1y agor2rtfText colour fixed for figures encoded into RTF
- 1y agor2rtfFootnote handling fixed for R 4.5.0
- 1y agor2rtfUnicode converter rebuilt and mapping table made inspectable
- 1y agorbmirstan demoted to Suggests, Bayesian imputation now opt-in ⚡
- 2y agor2rtfUTF-8 conversion fix and LibreOffice 7.6 support
- 2y agorbmirbmi v1.2.5
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between r2rtf and rbmi?
Both compete on the same themes — pharmaverse — within Analytics. rbmi is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is r2rtf better than rbmi?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rbmi is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to r2rtf?
Top r2rtf alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "r2rtf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/r2rtf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rbmi?
Top rbmi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rbmi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rbmi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.