randomwalk
randomwalk spent every release getting an R simulation to run in the browser, not on a server.
Comparison · Analytics
cubist vs rphylopic
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cubist and rphylopic — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
cubist vs rphylopic: at a glance
What is cubist?
The R port of Quinlan's Cubist gets reproducibility fixes, not new modelling
Cubist is the R interface to Quinlan's rule-based regression model, wrapping the original C sources behind an R API and feeding the tidymodels rules package. The 0.6.0 release adds a strip_time_stamps control that removes date, time and duration information from model output, and now errors rather than silently misbehaving when a date or date-time column is passed. Error reporting moves from base stop() and warning() to cli.
What is rphylopic?
The R package that puts organism silhouettes on plots keeps widening where they can be drawn.
rphylopic fetches PhyloPic silhouettes and places them into R graphics — base plots, ggplot2 layers, legends, and now phylogenetic trees and igraph networks. The 1.x line has been consistent about two things: adding a new plotting context per release, and steadily replacing its early sizing vocabulary with explicit width and height arguments. Attribution handling is unusually developed for a package this size, with permalinks and per-image credit built into the retrieval functions.
cubist vs rphylopic: editorial side-by-side
cubist
0.0ANALYTICS
The R port of Quinlan's Cubist gets reproducibility fixes, not new modelling
◆ Current state
Cubist is the R interface to Quinlan's rule-based regression model, wrapping the original C sources behind an R API and feeding the tidymodels rules package. The 0.6.0 release adds a strip_time_stamps control that removes date, time and duration information from model output, and now errors rather than silently misbehaving when a date or date-time column is passed. Error reporting moves from base stop() and warning() to cli.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is custodial: this is a mature algorithm with a stable definition, so the work is making a decades-old C codebase behave predictably inside a modern R workflow. The reproducibility thread is the clearest one — embedded timestamps mean two identical models compare as different objects, which breaks caching, testing and any workflow that hashes results. Alongside it runs slow C hygiene, from keyword symbol overwrites in 0.5.0 to unused-variable warnings in 0.6.0.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small maintenance releases tracking CRAN compiler requirements and the needs of the rules package, with no change to the modelling algorithm itself.
rphylopic
0.0ANALYTICS
The R package that puts organism silhouettes on plots keeps widening where they can be drawn.
◆ Current state
rphylopic fetches PhyloPic silhouettes and places them into R graphics — base plots, ggplot2 layers, legends, and now phylogenetic trees and igraph networks. The 1.x line has been consistent about two things: adding a new plotting context per release, and steadily replacing its early sizing vocabulary with explicit width and height arguments. Attribution handling is unusually developed for a package this size, with permalinks and per-image credit built into the retrieval functions.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is expanding the set of places a silhouette can appear rather than changing what the package does. Base plots came first, then ggplot2 aesthetics and legend glyphs, then trees, then network vertices via an igraph shape registered automatically when both packages load. The other running thread is defensive maintenance against upstream churn: retries on failed API calls, fixes for ggplot2 4.0.0, and now an in-memory cache so repeated calls stop hammering the PhyloPic API. The ysize and size deprecation, opened in 1.5.0, is now complete and the arguments are scheduled for removal.
◆ Prediction
The deprecated ysize and size arguments look set to be removed in the next release, and on the pattern of the last four, another plotting context is a likelier addition than a change to the retrieval layer.
Alternatives to cubist and rphylopic
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 cubist or rphylopic.
fastml
fastml added survival modelling and leakage-proof resampling, moving past classification and regression.
abclass
abclass built out angle-based classifiers in 2022, then went quiet except for CRAN upkeep.
churon
churon is spending its entire release history getting a Rust ONNX binding through CRAN.
firatheme
firatheme woke up after four years and started fixing what ggplot2 changed underneath it.
bagyo
bagyo reached CRAN as a Philippine tropical cyclone dataset, with its tags stamped out of order.
See all cubist alternatives → · See all rphylopic alternatives →
Recent activity from cubist and rphylopic
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agorphylopicSilhouettes become igraph vertices; API responses cached
- 5mo agocubiststrip_time_stamps makes fitted models reproducible
- 8mo agorphylopicBase R phylogenies gain silhouette annotation
- 9mo agocubistCubist 0.5.1
- 1y agocubistCubist 0.5.0
- 1y agorphylopicExplicit width and height replace the old sizing arguments
- 2y agocubistCubist 0.4.4
- 2y agorphylopicSilhouette legends and attribution permalinks
- 2y agorphylopicSilhouette resolution helper and safer colour defaults
- 2y agorphylopicRendering dependencies bumped for grImport2 and rsvg
- 4y agocubistCubist 0.4.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cubist and rphylopic?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. cubist and rphylopic 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 cubist better than rphylopic?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cubist and rphylopic 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 cubist?
Top cubist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cubist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cubist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rphylopic?
Top rphylopic alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rphylopic alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rphylopic for the full list with editorial commentary on each.