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r5r vs tern.rbmi

A side-by-side editorial comparison of r5r and tern.rbmi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

r5r vs tern.rbmi: at a glance

Featurer5rtern.rbmi
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themestransport-accessibility, routing, gtfs, javapharmaverse, multiple-imputation, cran-maintenance, tabulation
Last editorial update1h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is r5r?

r5r's jump to JDK 21 fixed Apple Silicon and broke everyone's toolchain at once.

r5r runs Conveyal's R5 routing engine from R for multimodal travel-time matrices, accessibility measures and isochrones. The current line requires JDK 21 and R5 v7.1, stores the engine jar under a managed user directory, and detects when a chosen date has no transit service instead of returning silent nonsense. Isochrones can now be returned as polygons rather than lines.

Read the full r5r trajectory →

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, and the three older entries now backfilled are version-bump automation.

Read the full tern.rbmi trajectory →

r5r vs tern.rbmi: editorial side-by-side

R
r5r
ANALYTICS
0.0

r5r's jump to JDK 21 fixed Apple Silicon and broke everyone's toolchain at once.

◆ Current state

r5r runs Conveyal's R5 routing engine from R for multimodal travel-time matrices, accessibility measures and isochrones. The current line requires JDK 21 and R5 v7.1, stores the engine jar under a managed user directory, and detects when a chosen date has no transit service instead of returning silent nonsense. Isochrones can now be returned as polygons rather than lines.

◆ Where it's heading

Development alternates between tracking upstream R5 and smoothing the rough edges its Java dependency creates. The v2.0 release was the pivotal one: raising the JDK floor was a breaking change, but it is what resolved the Mac ARM incompatibility and unblocked users on modern hardware. Since then the work has returned to routing outputs and error handling.

◆ Prediction

Expect further upstream R5 tracking plus incremental isochrone and accessibility options; the JDK floor has just been reset, so another runtime break is unlikely soon.

T
tern.rbmi
ANALYTICS
0.0

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, and the three older entries now backfilled are version-bump automation.

◆ 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. The newly surfaced 2022 entries reinforce rather than change that reading.

◆ 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 r5r 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 r5r or tern.rbmi.

See all r5r alternatives → · See all tern.rbmi alternatives →

Recent activity from r5r and tern.rbmi

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

  1. 1y agotern.rbmiVignette built only under gcc
  2. 1y agor5rPolygon isochrones and empty-service detection
  3. 1y agotern.rbmiV8 added to Suggests
  4. 1y agor5rJDK 21 requirement lands, fixing Apple Silicon support
  5. 1y agotern.rbmiCRAN resubmission with dependency and workflow updates
  6. 3y agor5rAdds isochrone() with vignettes and FAQ
  7. 3y agor5rBumps R5 to 6.9 for cropped OSM network fix
  8. 3y agotern.rbmiAutomated release commit for 0.1.1
  9. 4y agotern.rbmiDevelopment version bump to 0.1.0.9004
  10. 4y agotern.rbmiCI automation commit, no release content

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between r5r and tern.rbmi?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. r5r 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 r5r better than tern.rbmi?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. r5r 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 r5r?

Top r5r alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "r5r alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/r5r-r 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.