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Comparison · Analytics
atrrr vs fillpattern
A side-by-side editorial comparison of atrrr and fillpattern — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
atrrr vs fillpattern: at a glance
What is atrrr?
The R client for Bluesky adds a firehose and stops assuming Bluesky is the server
atrrr wraps the AT Protocol for R, covering posting, search, profiles, lists, direct messages and starter packs. The latest release adds an experimental firehose implementation and allows connecting to personal data servers other than Bluesky's — Eurosky is the example given. Earlier releases built out the posting surface: videos, multiple images, link preview cards, hashtags, and ggplot2 objects posted directly.
What is fillpattern?
Pattern fills for ggplot2, hardened against the ways users write sizes
fillpattern provides pattern fills — stripes, bricks, dots — for ggplot2 and base R graphics, aimed at figures that must stay legible in greyscale or to colour-blind readers. The 1.0.3 release is mostly defensive: size modifier strings ending in a colon no longer swap width for height, modify_size() reports invalid units instead of crashing and understands in, inches and cm, and a background colour bug in scale_fill_pattern() is fixed. The minimum R version rises to 4.2.0 for recent graphics engine features.
atrrr vs fillpattern: editorial side-by-side
atrrr
0.0ANALYTICS
The R client for Bluesky adds a firehose and stops assuming Bluesky is the server
◆ Current state
atrrr wraps the AT Protocol for R, covering posting, search, profiles, lists, direct messages and starter packs. The latest release adds an experimental firehose implementation and allows connecting to personal data servers other than Bluesky's — Eurosky is the example given. Earlier releases built out the posting surface: videos, multiple images, link preview cards, hashtags, and ggplot2 objects posted directly.
◆ Where it's heading
Two years of work made atrrr a capable REST client for one network. This release starts undoing that second part. The firehose is a different access mode — a stream rather than a request — which is what researchers doing collection at scale need, and PDS-agnosticism means the package addresses the protocol rather than the company. The rest of the changelog is steadily maintenance-shaped: repeated httr2 compatibility work, endpoint changes tracked as they happen.
◆ Prediction
The firehose is labelled experimental, so the next release most likely stabilises it rather than opening another front — though the notes give no detail on what remains unfinished.
fillpattern
0.0ANALYTICS
Pattern fills for ggplot2, hardened against the ways users write sizes
◆ Current state
fillpattern provides pattern fills — stripes, bricks, dots — for ggplot2 and base R graphics, aimed at figures that must stay legible in greyscale or to colour-blind readers. The 1.0.3 release is mostly defensive: size modifier strings ending in a colon no longer swap width for height, modify_size() reports invalid units instead of crashing and understands in, inches and cm, and a background colour bug in scale_fill_pattern() is fixed. The minimum R version rises to 4.2.0 for recent graphics engine features.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is slow and entirely reactive to how the string-based size interface fails. The pattern across releases is the same: a user hits an edge — very small fill areas in 1.0.2, malformed unit strings in 1.0.3 — and the fix is either a graceful fallback or a clearer error. Leaning on R's newer graphics engine rather than reimplementing pattern rendering keeps the package small at the cost of raising its version floor.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases to stay in the same register: parsing and validation fixes for the size and unit interface, with the pattern set itself unlikely to change.
Alternatives to atrrr and fillpattern
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 atrrr or fillpattern.
cubist
The R port of Quinlan's Cubist gets reproducibility fixes, not new modelling
ggstats
ggstats keeps widening what a coefficient or Likert plot can be
ecodive
ecodive rebuilt itself into a broad diversity-metric library, breaking as it went
simStateSpace
State-space data simulation for R, filled in one function at a time
rollama
rollama turns a local-LLM wrapper into an instrument for reproducible annotation
See all atrrr alternatives → · See all fillpattern alternatives →
Recent activity from atrrr and fillpattern
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agoatrrrExperimental firehose and support for non-Bluesky PDS ⚡
- 6mo agofillpatternSize string parsing fixed; invalid units now report instead of crash
- 1y agoatrrrDirect messages and starter-pack queries
- 1y agoatrrrPosting and auth fixes for httr2 1.1.0
- 1y agoatrrrVideo posting, multi-image support, and list retrieval
- 1y agoatrrrLanguage, tag and label options on posts
- 2y agofillpatternSmall fill areas no longer crash; min_size falls back to solid
- 2y agofillpatternfillpattern 1.0.1
- 2y agoatrrrPreview cards, hashtags, and direct ggplot2 posting
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between atrrr and fillpattern?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. atrrr and fillpattern 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 atrrr better than fillpattern?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. atrrr and fillpattern 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 atrrr?
Top atrrr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "atrrr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/atrrr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to fillpattern?
Top fillpattern alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fillpattern alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fillpattern for the full list with editorial commentary on each.