STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
sdsfun vs singlercapture
A side-by-side editorial comparison of sdsfun and singlercapture — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
sdsfun vs singlercapture: at a glance
What is sdsfun?
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
sdsfun collects spatial data science utilities — neighbour lists, spatial constrained clustering, discretization, dummy variable generation, geographical detector statistics and projection helpers — with the computationally heavy parts implemented in Rcpp. It was assembled quickly across late 2024, adding a function set roughly every three weeks, and has slowed since to a couple of releases a year. The most recent work is corrective: no longer initializing the RNG state at load, fixing matrix inputs misread as vectors, and clearing an Armadillo deprecation.
What is singlercapture?
singleRcapture reached 1.0.0 with no release notes at all — the arc has to be read backwards.
A package for single-source capture-recapture population size estimation: zero-truncated Poisson, geometric and negative binomial regression, Chao and Zelterman mixture models, analytic and bootstrap variance estimation, all behind estimatePopsize(). The 0.2.x line professionalised it — an offset argument, parallel bootstrap and dfbeta, faster semiparametric sampling, a singleRStaticCountData subclass explicitly created so a companion package could fit models from countreg and VGAM, then interaction-term and anova fixes. The 1.0.0 release carries nothing but a link to the compare view.
sdsfun vs singlercapture: editorial side-by-side
sdsfun
0.0ANALYTICS
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
◆ Current state
sdsfun collects spatial data science utilities — neighbour lists, spatial constrained clustering, discretization, dummy variable generation, geographical detector statistics and projection helpers — with the computationally heavy parts implemented in Rcpp. It was assembled quickly across late 2024, adding a function set roughly every three weeks, and has slowed since to a couple of releases a year. The most recent work is corrective: no longer initializing the RNG state at load, fixing matrix inputs misread as vectors, and clearing an Armadillo deprecation.
◆ Where it's heading
This is infrastructure for a family of packages rather than an end-user tool, and the changelog says so directly — functions were added to support gdverse and sesp, and moran_test was migrated in from geocomplexity. That migration pattern is the defining move: capability consolidates here so the downstream packages can share it instead of each carrying its own copy. Growth has slowed as that consolidation completed, leaving correctness and dependency upkeep.
◆ Prediction
Given the package moves when its dependents need something, the next release most likely brings in another shared function or responds to a downstream requirement rather than following its own plan. Armadillo and CRAN check changes remain the reliable source of maintenance work.
singlercapture
0.0ANALYTICS
singleRcapture reached 1.0.0 with no release notes at all — the arc has to be read backwards.
◆ Current state
A package for single-source capture-recapture population size estimation: zero-truncated Poisson, geometric and negative binomial regression, Chao and Zelterman mixture models, analytic and bootstrap variance estimation, all behind estimatePopsize(). The 0.2.x line professionalised it — an offset argument, parallel bootstrap and dfbeta, faster semiparametric sampling, a singleRStaticCountData subclass explicitly created so a companion package could fit models from countreg and VGAM, then interaction-term and anova fixes. The 1.0.0 release carries nothing but a link to the compare view.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction visible in 0.2.x is outward: refactoring for maintainability, extending to models fitted elsewhere via a subclass, adding a JSS-paper vignette, and pushing coverage towards 90%. That is a package preparing to be cited and extended rather than one still finding its methods. The 1.0.0 tag presumably marks the end of that stabilisation, but the entry itself gives no evidence either way.
◆ Prediction
Not readable from this feed — the 1.0.0 notes are empty, so whether the major version marks an API freeze or a breaking change cannot be determined from the entries shown.
Alternatives to sdsfun and singlercapture
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 sdsfun or singlercapture.
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 sdsfun alternatives → · See all singlercapture alternatives →
Recent activity from sdsfun and singlercapture
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agosinglercapturesingleRcapture 1.0.0
- 10mo agosdsfunPackage load stops touching the RNG state
- 1y agosdsfunUnified partial correlation testing and head/tails discretization
- 1y agosinglercaptureanova and other broken methods fixed
- 1y agosinglercaptureInteraction terms fixed; logLik returns gradients and hessians
- 1y agosdsfunMissing-value handling added to linear trend removal
- 1y agosdsfunCovariate-based detrending and long-to-matrix spatial reshaping
- 1y agosdsfunSpatially constrained hierarchical clustering and SPADE estimation
- 1y agosdsfunFast geodetector q-value estimator added
- 2y agosinglercaptureSubclass opens population estimation to countreg and VGAM fits
- 4y agosinglercaptureFirst usable release: zero-truncated and mixture estimators
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between sdsfun and singlercapture?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. sdsfun and singlercapture 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 sdsfun better than singlercapture?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. sdsfun and singlercapture 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 sdsfun?
Top sdsfun alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sdsfun alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sdsfun for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to singlercapture?
Top singlercapture alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "singlercapture alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/singlercapture for the full list with editorial commentary on each.