tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
r2rtf vs tern.rbmi
A side-by-side editorial comparison of r2rtf and tern.rbmi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:pharmaverse
r2rtf vs tern.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 tern.rbmi?
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
tern.rbmi renders the output of {rbmi} reference-based multiple imputation analyses into tern tables for clinical reporting. Its three most recent releases exist to satisfy CRAN: restricting vignette builds to gcc, adding V8 to Suggests, and a plain resubmission. No user-facing functionality has changed in the visible window.
r2rtf vs tern.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.
tern.rbmi
0.0ANALYTICS
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
◆ Current state
tern.rbmi renders the output of {rbmi} reference-based multiple imputation analyses into tern tables for clinical reporting. Its three most recent releases exist to satisfy CRAN: restricting vignette builds to gcc, adding V8 to Suggests, and a plain resubmission. No user-facing functionality has changed in the visible window.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a thin adapter package and behaves like one — it moves when CRAN or an upstream dependency forces it to. Between 2022 and 2024 the feed shows only version bumps, and the 2025 releases are packaging concerns rather than analysis changes.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by a CRAN check failure or an {rbmi} update rather than by new tabulation features.
Alternatives to r2rtf and tern.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 tern.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.
See all r2rtf alternatives → · See all tern.rbmi alternatives →
Recent activity from r2rtf and tern.rbmi
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agor2rtfDOCX and HTML output become exported functions
- 11mo agor2rtfChinese character support arrives via an i18n font path ⚡
- 1y agotern.rbmiVignette built only under gcc
- 1y agor2rtfText colour fixed for figures encoded into RTF
- 1y agotern.rbmiV8 added to Suggests
- 1y agor2rtfFootnote handling fixed for R 4.5.0
- 1y agor2rtfUnicode converter rebuilt and mapping table made inspectable
- 1y agotern.rbmiCRAN resubmission with dependency and workflow updates
- 2y agor2rtfUTF-8 conversion fix and LibreOffice 7.6 support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between r2rtf and tern.rbmi?
Both compete on the same themes — pharmaverse — within Analytics. r2rtf and tern.rbmi 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 r2rtf better than tern.rbmi?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. r2rtf and tern.rbmi 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 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 tern.rbmi?
Top tern.rbmi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tern.rbmi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tern-rbmi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.