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Comparison · Analytics
RBesT vs ymlthis
A side-by-side editorial comparison of RBesT and ymlthis — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-language
RBesT vs ymlthis: at a glance
What is RBesT?
RBesT is teaching its Bayesian decision rules to answer two-sided questions.
RBesT builds meta-analytic-predictive priors — the machinery for borrowing historical control data into a new trial — and evaluates the operating characteristics of decisions made with them. The stable line has spent several releases on effective sample size: ESS for normal mixtures via a new `family` argument, boundary corrections when no responses or no non-responses are observed, and stabilised ELIR computations. The 1.9-0 release candidate extends the normal, binomial and Poisson outcome functions to two-sided decisions.
What is ymlthis?
ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.
ymlthis built R Markdown YAML front matter programmatically — a fluent `yml_*()` interface plus RStudio add-ins, so users did not have to hand-write metadata blocks whose valid fields were scattered across output-format documentation. Version 1.0.0 declares the package retired, with only CRAN-preserving changes to follow, and states the reason plainly: Quarto now provides good YAML support.
RBesT vs ymlthis: editorial side-by-side
RBesT
0.0ANALYTICS
RBesT is teaching its Bayesian decision rules to answer two-sided questions.
◆ Current state
RBesT builds meta-analytic-predictive priors — the machinery for borrowing historical control data into a new trial — and evaluates the operating characteristics of decisions made with them. The stable line has spent several releases on effective sample size: ESS for normal mixtures via a new `family` argument, boundary corrections when no responses or no non-responses are observed, and stabilised ELIR computations. The 1.9-0 release candidate extends the normal, binomial and Poisson outcome functions to two-sided decisions.
◆ Where it's heading
Two currents run through the changelog. One is ESS hardening — nearly every release since 1.7-4 fixes another edge case where the ELIR calculation aborted or returned something unstable, which is what happens when a quantity used to justify prior strength to regulators gets scrutinised. The other is Stan and brms integration debt: array syntax updates, a minimum Stan version bump, truncated prior generation for `mixstanvar`, deterministic EM. The RC's contributor list shows a second active maintainer, and the work is broader than any recent stable release.
◆ Prediction
The release candidate covers all three outcome families and has already absorbed a round of review comments, so the next step is most likely the 1.9-0 CRAN release itself rather than further feature work.
ymlthis
0.0ANALYTICS
ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.
◆ Current state
ymlthis built R Markdown YAML front matter programmatically — a fluent `yml_*()` interface plus RStudio add-ins, so users did not have to hand-write metadata blocks whose valid fields were scattered across output-format documentation. Version 1.0.0 declares the package retired, with only CRAN-preserving changes to follow, and states the reason plainly: Quarto now provides good YAML support.
◆ Where it's heading
The retirement is the endpoint of a long drift. Between 2020 and 2022 every release was reactive — patching around a crayon update that mangled rendered YAML, tracking shiny 1.6, following roxygen2 7.0.0, fixing a typo in an add-in. No new capability has landed in six years, and the four-year gap before 1.0.0 had already answered the question the release note finally makes explicit.
◆ Prediction
Nothing further of substance is expected — the stated policy is changes only where CRAN requires them, so the next release, if any, will be a compatibility patch.
Alternatives to RBesT and ymlthis
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 RBesT or ymlthis.
DoseFinding
New stewardship at openpharma, then two releases adding the methods MCP-Mod was missing
webmockr
The stubbing library added httr2 support, then spent a year cutting itself free of everything else
crul
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
dendroNetwork
Six releases, six identical bodies — the feed carries the package abstract instead of release notes
chattr
chattr deleted every LLM integration it had written and outsourced the lot to ellmer
See all RBesT alternatives → · See all ymlthis alternatives →
Recent activity from RBesT and ymlthis
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agoRBesTTwo-sided decisions across normal, binomial and Poisson outcomes ⚡
- 5mo agoymlthisymlthis retired; Quarto covers the need ⚡
- 1y agoRBesTJSON read and write for mixture objects
- 1y agoRBesTess() fixed inside apply functions
- 1y agoRBesTESS for normal mixtures in the exponential family
- 1y agoRBesTTruncated mixture priors for brms, plus faster Stan models
- 2y agoRBesTStan array syntax update and CRAN system requirements
- 4y agoymlthisTypo fixed in the miniUI add-in check
- 4y agoymlthisyml_author() accepts yml_blank(); shiny fixes
- 4y agoymlthisciteproc handling moved to newer rmarkdown functions
- 5y agoymlthisPatched a crayon update that mangled rendered YAML
- 5y agoymlthisAdjustments for shiny 1.6
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between RBesT and ymlthis?
Both compete on the same themes — r-language — within Analytics. RBesT and ymlthis 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 RBesT better than ymlthis?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. RBesT and ymlthis 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 RBesT?
Top RBesT alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "RBesT alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rbest for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ymlthis?
Top ymlthis alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ymlthis alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ymlthis for the full list with editorial commentary on each.