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Comparison · Analytics
bittermelon vs distributions3
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bittermelon and distributions3 — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
bittermelon vs distributions3: at a glance
What is bittermelon?
bittermelon is growing from binary bitmaps toward greyscale and color glyphs
The package manipulates bitmap fonts and bitmaps in R, and the recent direction is widening what a glyph can be. v2.3.1 adds greyscale font support by reading the experimental yaff levels property into pixmap glyphs with alpha derived from the level fraction, and makes writing a multi-colored glyph an error rather than silently clamping it. Earlier releases built out the same surface: bm_extract(), an interactive pixel picker, data frame coercion, and format support for other packages' bitmap types.
What is distributions3?
distributions3 changes hands to Achim Zeileis, and a moment calculation bug goes with it.
An R package giving probability distributions a consistent object interface — d/p/q/r functions, moments, and prodist() methods that extract a fitted distribution from a regression object. Releases are infrequent, roughly one a year, and the last one is largely administrative: Achim Zeileis takes over maintenance from Alex Hayes, with all URLs and documentation updated to match, alongside a fix to incorrect moment calculations reported by a user.
bittermelon vs distributions3: editorial side-by-side
bittermelon
0.0ANALYTICS
bittermelon is growing from binary bitmaps toward greyscale and color glyphs
◆ Current state
The package manipulates bitmap fonts and bitmaps in R, and the recent direction is widening what a glyph can be. v2.3.1 adds greyscale font support by reading the experimental yaff levels property into pixmap glyphs with alpha derived from the level fraction, and makes writing a multi-colored glyph an error rather than silently clamping it. Earlier releases built out the same surface: bm_extract(), an interactive pixel picker, data frame coercion, and format support for other packages' bitmap types.
◆ Where it's heading
Two things are converging. The representation is moving beyond one-bit glyphs — pixmaps, color, and now greyscale levels with transparency — while the API gets stricter about the boundary between them, refusing to quietly downcast a color glyph on write. Separately, the package has been shedding weight: the embedded monobit copy was removed once it outgrew CRAN size limits, pushing format breadth onto a user-installed dependency.
◆ Prediction
Expect further greyscale and color work now that levels parsing exists — most likely writing that format rather than only reading it, since the write path is where the current release chose to draw a hard error instead.
distributions3
2.5ANALYTICS
distributions3 changes hands to Achim Zeileis, and a moment calculation bug goes with it.
◆ Current state
An R package giving probability distributions a consistent object interface — d/p/q/r functions, moments, and prodist() methods that extract a fitted distribution from a regression object. Releases are infrequent, roughly one a year, and the last one is largely administrative: Achim Zeileis takes over maintenance from Alex Hayes, with all URLs and documentation updated to match, alongside a fix to incorrect moment calculations reported by a user.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's growth has come in two modes. Early releases absorbed whole families of distributions from outside contributors — the extreme-value set, Erlang, later the Poisson binomial — while later ones tightened the interface itself with is_discrete() and is_continuous() generics and elementwise type-safety when applying a distribution vector to a numeric vector. The handover is the notable event in the current window: maintenance moves to the author of the surrounding statistical ecosystem this package already integrates with through prodist() and countreg, which suggests the interface work will continue over the distribution-collection work.
◆ Prediction
Expect closer alignment with Zeileis's own packages, with prodist() coverage widening to more model classes; the entries here do not indicate whether new distribution families remain on the agenda.
Alternatives to bittermelon and distributions3
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 bittermelon or distributions3.
tidytransit
tidytransit tracks the GTFS spec as it grows, one reader and one router feature at a time.
oblicubes
A tiny grid renderer for oblique-projection cubes, complete since its first release.
biocro
BioCro swapped an unstable iteration for real root finders, changing what its crop models compute.
redist
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
epiflows
epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.
See all bittermelon alternatives → · See all distributions3 alternatives →
Recent activity from bittermelon and distributions3
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 24d agodistributions3Maintenance moves to Achim Zeileis; moment calculations corrected
- 4mo agobittermelonGreyscale font reading arrives; color glyphs no longer clamp silently
- 6mo agobittermelonBitmap extraction and a supported-format predicate
- 10mo agodistributions3ggplot2 compatibility for the plotting functions
- 1y agobittermelonData frame coercion and an interactive pixel picker
- 1y agodistributions3Poisson binomial distribution, with a normal-approximation fallback
- 2y agobittermelonEmbedded monobit removed; broader format support now needs a manual install
- 2y agobittermelonCombining-character test fixed after a Unicode package change
- 3y agobittermelonHex fonts can be read selectively by code point
- 3y agodistributions3is_discrete and is_continuous generics, plus elementwise type-safety
- 4y agodistributions3Extreme-value family, Erlang, and a plotting generic
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bittermelon and distributions3?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. distributions3 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 bittermelon better than distributions3?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. distributions3 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to bittermelon?
Top bittermelon alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bittermelon alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bittermelon-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to distributions3?
Top distributions3 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "distributions3 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/distributions3-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.