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ddpcr

ANALYTICS
Velocity0.0

Analysis and Visualization of Droplet Digital PCR in R and on the Web

github.com/daattali/ddpcr ↗

A decade-old droplet PCR analysis package woken up for one compatibility release

bioinformaticsdigital-pcrmaintenancecranshiny
◆Current state
ddpcr reads droplet digital PCR data exported from Bio-Rad's QuantaSoft, classifies droplets and ships a Shiny interface over the analysis. It has been on CRAN since 2016 alongside an F1000Research paper. The last ten years of releases are almost entirely about keeping pace with QuantaSoft export formats and with churn in its own R dependencies.
◆Where it's heading
This is a maintained-not-developed package, and the release history shows it plainly: a burst of real work through 2016 and 2017, then long silences broken by releases whose stated purpose is staying on CRAN. The 2026 release fits the same shape but does more than the 2023 pair did, adding support for a QuantaSoft variant and finally retiring dplyr code written against a tidy evaluation style that has been outdated for years.
◆Prediction
Nothing in the entries points to new analysis capability; the pattern suggests the package surfaces again only when a QuantaSoft export change or a dependency deprecation forces it.

◆Recent moves

  1. 7mo ago

    Handles QuantaSoft files with prepended header lines

    Adds support for amplitude files from QuantaSoft versions that prepend extra lines, which previously would have failed to parse, and clears out the outdated tidy evaluation code across the dplyr call sites. The first release in nearly three years to fix something a user would actually hit.

    View source ↗
  2. 2y ago

    Maintenance release to stay on CRAN

    Housekeeping with no stated user-visible effect, done to keep the package from being archived. It marks the dormancy rather than interrupting it.

    View source ↗
  3. 3y ago

    Compatibility touch-ups for newer R and dependencies

    Small adjustments for newer R and dependency versions, again framed as CRAN upkeep. Same maintenance pattern as the release that followed months later.

    View source ↗
  4. 9y ago

    Channel 1 and 2 targets read from QuantaSoft 1.7.4 exports

    Reads target names for both channels from the then-new QuantaSoft export format, alongside a refactor for contemporary dplyr and ggplot2. This is the same class of work as the 2026 release, which is the clearest signal of what keeps this package alive.

    View source ↗
  5. 9y ago

    ggplot2 2.2.0 compatibility and dependency bumps

    Fixes plotting code against a breaking ggplot2 release, quiets readr messages and bumps DT. Dependency churn absorbed with no change to what the package does.

    View source ↗
  6. 10y ago

    CRAN and F1000Research release

    The initial CRAN release, timed with an F1000Research submission. It establishes the academic-tool pattern the package has followed since: published once, then maintained against the instrument vendor's file formats.

    View source ↗