qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
dietr vs kernelshap
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dietr and kernelshap — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dietr vs kernelshap: at a glance
What is dietr?
A fish diet package whose release history is really a record of surviving rfishbase.
dietr computes diet and trophic indices for fish from FishBase-style data, including electivity measures and composite indices. Its recent releases exist because upstream rfishbase changes repeatedly broke it — the latest pair restore functionality after a break severe enough to get the package removed from CRAN, while adding GII, MFI and Windell significance to the composite indices. The 1.1.6-1 patch restates the same notes as 1.1.6.
What is kernelshap?
kernelshap makes permutation SHAP practical past eight features, then fixes the kernel weights it had wrong.
kernelshap computes model-agnostic SHAP values in R through Kernel SHAP, permutation SHAP and an exact additive explainer. Version 0.8.0 added a sampling permutation-SHAP algorithm with standard errors and early stopping, lifting the practical feature ceiling past what the exact method allows. Version 0.9.0 then corrected a bug in how kernel weights were computed — exact Kernel SHAP now agrees with exact permutation SHAP — and moved parallelism from foreach to doFuture.
dietr vs kernelshap: editorial side-by-side
dietr
0.0ANALYTICS
A fish diet package whose release history is really a record of surviving rfishbase.
◆ Current state
dietr computes diet and trophic indices for fish from FishBase-style data, including electivity measures and composite indices. Its recent releases exist because upstream rfishbase changes repeatedly broke it — the latest pair restore functionality after a break severe enough to get the package removed from CRAN, while adding GII, MFI and Windell significance to the composite indices. The 1.1.6-1 patch restates the same notes as 1.1.6.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost every release in this window names an upstream dependency as its cause: rfishbase updates in four of them, duckdb in another. The genuine methodological additions arrive bundled inside those repair releases rather than on their own. That is a fragile position for a package whose core value is convenient access to a remote database.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely follows the next rfishbase change; new indices will probably continue to ride along with compatibility repairs.
kernelshap
0.0ANALYTICS
kernelshap makes permutation SHAP practical past eight features, then fixes the kernel weights it had wrong.
◆ Current state
kernelshap computes model-agnostic SHAP values in R through Kernel SHAP, permutation SHAP and an exact additive explainer. Version 0.8.0 added a sampling permutation-SHAP algorithm with standard errors and early stopping, lifting the practical feature ceiling past what the exact method allows. Version 0.9.0 then corrected a bug in how kernel weights were computed — exact Kernel SHAP now agrees with exact permutation SHAP — and moved parallelism from foreach to doFuture.
◆ Where it's heading
Two concerns drive this package: making exact methods reach further, and being demonstrably right. The first shows in the additive explainer, the optional background dataset and the sampling permutation algorithm; the second in unit tests written against Python's shap, credited fixes from outside contributors, and a willingness to ship a correctness fix that changes numbers people have already published. Speed work runs continuously underneath — direct solves replacing the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse, roughly 10% less memory.
◆ Prediction
The 0.6.0 and 0.7.0 notes each promised a stable 1.0.0 that has not arrived; with the weighting bug fixed and parallelism reworked, a 1.0 release is the most plausible next step.
Alternatives to dietr and kernelshap
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 dietr or kernelshap.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
austraits
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
See all dietr alternatives → · See all kernelshap alternatives →
Recent activity from dietr and kernelshap
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agokernelshapKernel weight bug fixed; parallelism moves to doFuture
- 1y agokernelshapSampling permutation SHAP with standard errors ⚡
- 1y agodietrPatch re-release of the 1.1.6 rfishbase repair
- 1y agodietrRestores CRAN compatibility; adds GII, MFI and Windell indices
- 1y agodietrrfishbase compatibility fixes
- 1y agokernelshapBackground data now optional; ranger survival support
- 2y agokernelshapFactor-valued predictions dropped
- 2y agokernelshapadditive_shap() explains additive models exactly
- 2y agokernelshapFaster on plain data.frames
- 3y agodietrduckdb and rfishbase compatibility fixes
- 4y agodietrElectivity abundance fix invalidates some earlier results
- 4y agodietrMemory fix in diet conversion; rfishbase repair
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dietr and kernelshap?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dietr and kernelshap 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 dietr better than kernelshap?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dietr and kernelshap 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 dietr?
Top dietr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dietr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dietr-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to kernelshap?
Top kernelshap alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "kernelshap alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kernelshap for the full list with editorial commentary on each.