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Comparison · Analytics
regfusionr vs rmediation
A side-by-side editorial comparison of regfusionr and rmediation — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
regfusionr vs rmediation: at a glance
What is regfusionr?
Registration fusion mapping goes bidirectional, and a vertex-indexing bug that silently returned wrong coordinates is fixed
regfusionr maps coordinates between volumetric brain templates (MNI152, Colin27) and the fsaverage surface. After four dormant years it returned in July 2026 with a release that fixes a coordinate-indexing bug, unblocks a previously disabled function, and completes the template-by-method matrix so all four combinations answer point queries. It also breaks compatibility by switching to the standard FREESURFER_HOME environment variable.
What is rmediation?
RMediation shipped a three-normal CDF, then found it was silently wrong.
RMediation is a long-standing CRAN package for confidence intervals on mediated effects, now built on an S7 class hierarchy. Over eight weeks it added ProductNormal3 for serial indirect effects of the form a1*a2*b, folded the engine into the existing pprodnormal naming family, and then replaced that engine outright after finding it returned wrong probabilities without warning. The dev branch is at 1.7.0; CRAN still serves 1.6.1.
regfusionr vs rmediation: editorial side-by-side
regfusionr
3.8ANALYTICS
Registration fusion mapping goes bidirectional, and a vertex-indexing bug that silently returned wrong coordinates is fixed
◆ Current state
regfusionr maps coordinates between volumetric brain templates (MNI152, Colin27) and the fsaverage surface. After four dormant years it returned in July 2026 with a release that fixes a coordinate-indexing bug, unblocks a previously disabled function, and completes the template-by-method matrix so all four combinations answer point queries. It also breaks compatibility by switching to the standard FREESURFER_HOME environment variable.
◆ Where it's heading
The package moved from a partial implementation to a complete one in a single release. Before this, vol_coords_to_fsaverage returned coordinates indexed by query position rather than by vertex index — results that looked plausible and were wrong — and fsaverage_to_vol was guarded behind a stop(). Both are now resolved, and the new Colin27 and MNI152 convenience functions make the mapping bidirectional. The sibling package haze shipped a maintenance release 56 minutes later, marking this as a coordinated sweep across the maintainer's neuroimaging stack.
◆ Prediction
With the four template-by-method combinations closed and the coordinate bug fixed, the next release is more likely to be CRAN-adjacent packaging or documentation than new mapping capability.
rmediation
3.8ANALYTICS
RMediation shipped a three-normal CDF, then found it was silently wrong.
◆ Current state
RMediation is a long-standing CRAN package for confidence intervals on mediated effects, now built on an S7 class hierarchy. Over eight weeks it added ProductNormal3 for serial indirect effects of the form a1*a2*b, folded the engine into the existing pprodnormal naming family, and then replaced that engine outright after finding it returned wrong probabilities without warning. The dev branch is at 1.7.0; CRAN still serves 1.6.1.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from a hand-rolled numerical layer to one that checks itself: the new default integrator escalates its node count until successive rules agree, warns when it hits the cap instead of returning a number, and exposes a diagnostics argument for the convergence estimate. The correctness fix went to dev ahead of the CRAN window rather than being held for it, which suggests wrong-answer bugs are treated as release-blocking regardless of cadence. Serial mediation is where the new surface area is concentrated.
◆ Prediction
1.7.0 exists specifically to land before CRAN's 2026-08-21 update window, so the next move is a CRAN submission promoting it to main; whether hcubature survives past that as a cross-check option is the open question.
Alternatives to regfusionr and rmediation
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 regfusionr or rmediation.
quanteda
Text analysis in R keeps optimising its token internals — and builds a path out to torch
moderndive
The ModernDive teaching package learns to render inside the browser that runs its own textbook
glmbayes
A GPU-accelerated Bayesian GLM package buys its way into the standard R Bayesian toolchain
hydroloom
USGS puts a type system over its river network toolkit so errors surface at dispatch
chromConverter
The chromatography file-format translator keeps absorbing vendor formats one release at a time
See all regfusionr alternatives → · See all rmediation alternatives →
Recent activity from regfusionr and rmediation
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8h agormediationv1.7.0 — pprodnormal3() correctness fix ⚡
- 18d agoregfusionrVersion 0.3.0 -- vol_to_fsaverage, many convenience functions and fixes ⚡
- 1mo agormediationp_prod3() renamed into the pprodnormal family
- 1mo agormediationProductNormal3: exact CDF for a product of three normals ⚡
- 1mo agormediationmedfit reaches CRAN; Remotes pointer dropped
- 4y agoregfusionrv0.2.0 -- surface to volume data projection
- 4y agoregfusionrv0.1.0: Initial release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between regfusionr and rmediation?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. regfusionr and rmediation are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 3.8 vs 3.8, 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 regfusionr better than rmediation?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. regfusionr and rmediation are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 3.8 vs 3.8, 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 regfusionr?
Top regfusionr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "regfusionr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/regfusionr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rmediation?
Top rmediation alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rmediation alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rmediation for the full list with editorial commentary on each.