STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
rmediation vs roclang
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rmediation and roclang — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
rmediation vs roclang: at a glance
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.
What is roclang?
A roxygen2 documentation-reuse helper whose release notes are mostly upstream damage control.
roclang lets package authors pull documentation text out of an existing function's roxygen block and splice it into their own — extract_roc_text() with type = "param", "dot_params" or a section selector. The feature surface has been stable since 0.2.1; the parameter-matching rules and the checks for invalid or ambiguous extractions are the substance of what shipped.
rmediation vs roclang: editorial side-by-side
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.
roclang
0.0ANALYTICS
A roxygen2 documentation-reuse helper whose release notes are mostly upstream damage control.
◆ Current state
roclang lets package authors pull documentation text out of an existing function's roxygen block and splice it into their own — extract_roc_text() with type = "param", "dot_params" or a section selector. The feature surface has been stable since 0.2.1; the parameter-matching rules and the checks for invalid or ambiguous extractions are the substance of what shipped.
◆ Where it's heading
Nearly every release since 0.2.0 has been reactive. The package parses documentation text produced by other packages, so a wording change in stats::lm()'s documentation breaks its test suite, and a roxygen2 selection-semantics change forces its parameter matching to follow. The 0.2.3 release is exactly this pattern again. Release cadence has slowed to roughly one entry every two years, and the last two carried no functional change at all.
◆ Prediction
Further releases are most likely triggered by upstream roxygen2 or base R documentation edits breaking tests rather than by new extraction capability. The entries show no queued feature work.
Alternatives to rmediation and roclang
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 rmediation or roclang.
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 rmediation alternatives → · See all roclang alternatives →
Recent activity from rmediation and roclang
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15h agormediationv1.7.0 — pprodnormal3() correctness fix ⚡
- 1mo agormediationp_prod3() renamed into the pprodnormal family
- 1mo agormediationProductNormal3: exact CDF for a product of three normals ⚡
- 2mo agormediationmedfit reaches CRAN; Remotes pointer dropped
- 11mo agoroclangTest fix for changed stats::lm() Reference section
- 3y agoroclangREADME loading switched to pkgload, downloads badge added
- 3y agoroclangDot-params error messages and ... selection unblocked
- 4y agoroclangMulti-parameter selection follows roxygen2 7.1.2 semantics
- 4y agoroclangAmbiguous unqualified function names now error
- 4y agoroclangCI workflows, fuller test coverage, unqualified-package fix
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rmediation and roclang?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rmediation is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is rmediation better than roclang?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rmediation is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
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.
What are the best alternatives to roclang?
Top roclang alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "roclang alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/roclang for the full list with editorial commentary on each.