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Comparison · Infra & APIs
sps vs wooldridge
A side-by-side editorial comparison of sps and wooldridge — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
sps vs wooldridge: at a glance
What is sps?
sps keeps sanding down sequential Poisson sampling rather than adding to it.
The package implements sequential Poisson sampling for survey design, covering inclusion probabilities, proportional allocation, replicate weights, and take-all strata. Recent releases are small and tightly scoped: a divisor method helper, an iterator that draws a sample one unit at a time, automatic selection of the replicate-weight parameter, and repeated performance work on inclusion probability calculation.
What is wooldridge?
A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.
wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.
sps vs wooldridge: editorial side-by-side
sps
2.5INFRA · APIS
sps keeps sanding down sequential Poisson sampling rather than adding to it.
◆ Current state
The package implements sequential Poisson sampling for survey design, covering inclusion probabilities, proportional allocation, replicate weights, and take-all strata. Recent releases are small and tightly scoped: a divisor method helper, an iterator that draws a sample one unit at a time, automatic selection of the replicate-weight parameter, and repeated performance work on inclusion probability calculation.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is consolidation rather than expansion. Most releases either speed up an existing routine or remove a decision the user previously had to make by hand, such as picking the smallest parameter that keeps replicate weights non-negative. Documentation and tooling get comparable attention to the algorithms, with a dedicated vignette on inclusion probabilities and a recent switch of test and documentation infrastructure. The API surface has been essentially stable across the window.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small ergonomic and performance releases against the existing function set rather than new sampling designs, which is the pattern every release in this window follows.
wooldridge
0.0INFRA · APIS
A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.
◆ Current state
wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.
◆ Where it's heading
The maintainer has been systematically shrinking the package's attack surface for years. Dependencies used only for vignette examples were cut after one of them broke its API and triggered a CRAN removal notice; test infrastructure moved from testthat to tinytest and from Travis and AppVeyor to GitHub Actions; datasets were compressed by stripping attributes left over from the Stata imports. The stated goal, written into the 1.4-2 notes, is that this should be the easiest package the maintainer has to look after.
◆ Prediction
Nothing in the recent entries points to new data; the next release will most likely be triggered by another CRAN check failure or by a new edition of the textbook adding datasets.
Alternatives to sps and wooldridge
Other Infra & APIs 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 sps or wooldridge.
forestploter
A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.
ggInterval
Interval-valued data plotting, spending 2026 making its function names and examples survive CRAN.
rgm
A microbiome network model that got itself un-archived by deleting the dependency that killed it.
contagionchannels
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
tidyaudit
Pipeline provenance for tidyverse workflows, recording what changed at each step without keeping the data.
See all sps alternatives → · See all wooldridge alternatives →
Recent activity from sps and wooldridge
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agospsDocumentation polish; switches to tinytest and litedown
- 1mo agowooldridgeDocs re-compiled so the previous release's URL fixes take effect
- 9mo agospsFixes extra argument handling in sps_iterator()
- 0y agospsAdds divisor_method() and a one-unit-at-a-time sampling iterator
- 1y agospsAdds an inclusion-probability vignette and faster partial sorting
- 1y agospsAutomatic tau selection for replicate weights
- 2y agospsAdds becomes_ta() for take-all stratum sample sizes
- 3y agowooldridgeCI moved to GitHub Actions; live-data examples disabled
- 3y agowooldridgeDocumentation content and formatting pass
- 4y agowooldridgeFour 7th-edition datasets added; tests moved to tinytest
- 4y agowooldridgeVignette scope cut to drop heavy and API-unstable dependencies
- 7y agowooldridgeVignette repaired after an upstream API rename
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between sps and wooldridge?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. sps is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 sps better than wooldridge?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. sps is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to sps?
Top sps alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sps alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sps for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to wooldridge?
Top wooldridge alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "wooldridge alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/wooldridge for the full list with editorial commentary on each.