STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
rATTAINS vs tbrf
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rATTAINS and tbrf — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:water-qualityr-packageenvironmental-data
rATTAINS vs tbrf: at a glance
What is rATTAINS?
The R client for EPA water quality data spent two releases undoing its own promises about data shape.
rATTAINS wraps the EPA's ATTAINS API, which holds state water quality assessments and impaired-waters listings. The package reached 1.0.0 by promising stable, consistently rectangled return structures, then walked that promise back in 1.1.0 when it dropped the dependency doing the rectangling. As of 1.2.0 it also requires an API key, because ATTAINS itself began requiring one in May 2026.
What is tbrf?
Time-based rolling statistics for water-quality data, finally getting plotting and padding built in.
tbrf computes rolling statistics over time windows rather than fixed row counts — geometric means, confidence intervals and related summaries indexed by date. That distinction matters for irregularly sampled environmental monitoring data, where a fixed-width window spans different amounts of real time. Version 0.1.7 folds in stat_stepribbon() from ggalt, ships an Entero example dataset for lognormal workflows, and adds na.pad across the tbr_ family.
rATTAINS vs tbrf: editorial side-by-side
rATTAINS
0.0ANALYTICS
The R client for EPA water quality data spent two releases undoing its own promises about data shape.
◆ Current state
rATTAINS wraps the EPA's ATTAINS API, which holds state water quality assessments and impaired-waters listings. The package reached 1.0.0 by promising stable, consistently rectangled return structures, then walked that promise back in 1.1.0 when it dropped the dependency doing the rectangling. As of 1.2.0 it also requires an API key, because ATTAINS itself began requiring one in May 2026.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward a thinner, lower-maintenance wrapper. Caching went in 0.1.4 when hoardr was archived, tidyjson and janitor went earlier, tibblify went in 1.1.0, and each removal handed a little more data-shaping responsibility back to the user — the current advice is to pass .unnest = FALSE and rectangle the results with whatever tidying package you prefer. Release cadence is slow and mostly reactive: upstream API terms, archived dependencies, and compatibility with test tooling account for most of the log. The package's centre of gravity is staying installable and honest about what ATTAINS returns rather than smoothing it over.
◆ Prediction
Given the pattern, the next release is likelier to be a compatibility or upstream-driven fix than new endpoint coverage; how the API key requirement affects users in scripted and CI contexts is the obvious open question the entries do not yet answer.
tbrf
0.0ANALYTICS
Time-based rolling statistics for water-quality data, finally getting plotting and padding built in.
◆ Current state
tbrf computes rolling statistics over time windows rather than fixed row counts — geometric means, confidence intervals and related summaries indexed by date. That distinction matters for irregularly sampled environmental monitoring data, where a fixed-width window spans different amounts of real time. Version 0.1.7 folds in stat_stepribbon() from ggalt, ships an Entero example dataset for lognormal workflows, and adds na.pad across the tbr_ family.
◆ Where it's heading
The package spent its middle releases absorbing upstream breakage — a lubridate duration redefinition, a tibble 3.0.0 subassignment change, tidyselect internals. The 0.1.7 release breaks that pattern: it is the first in five years to add capability rather than repair it, and it does so by internalising a stat from an abandoned dependency instead of relying on it. Cadence remains very low, with a five-year gap between 0.1.5 and 0.1.6.
◆ Prediction
Absorbing stat_stepribbon() directly suggests further vendoring of the plotting layer rather than new statistical functions. The entries do not indicate which rolling statistics, if any, are queued next.
Alternatives to rATTAINS and tbrf
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 rATTAINS or tbrf.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all rATTAINS alternatives → · See all tbrf alternatives →
Recent activity from rATTAINS and tbrf
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agorATTAINSATTAINS now requires an API key, and the package follows
- 8mo agorATTAINSThe tibblify dependency goes, and with it the stable data shapes ⚡
- 0y agotbrfstat_stepribbon vendored in, plus na.pad on all rolling functions
- 1y agorATTAINSTest suite updated for vcr v2
- 1y agotbrfgm_mean_ci forwards na.rm and zero.propagate correctly
- 3y agorATTAINS1.0.0 commits to stable return structures via tibblify
- 3y agorATTAINSCaching removed after hoardr was archived
- 4y agorATTAINSRequests retry on timeout, with offline detection
- 6y agotbrfFix internals broken by tibble 3.0.0 subassignment
- 6y agotbrfDate windows recomputed with intervals and periods
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rATTAINS and tbrf?
Both compete on the same themes — water-quality, r-package, environmental-data — within Analytics. rATTAINS and tbrf 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 rATTAINS better than tbrf?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rATTAINS and tbrf 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 rATTAINS?
Top rATTAINS alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rATTAINS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rattains for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tbrf?
Top tbrf alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tbrf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tbrf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.