qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
dietr vs xts
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dietr and xts — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dietr vs xts: 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 xts?
xts is finished software, and its releases now track R's C API more than user requests.
xts is the time-series class underpinning much of R's financial stack, and it behaves like infrastructure: the visible releases are bug fixes, plotting repairs and conformance work. A recurring thread is removing calls R no longer considers public — SET_TYPEOF in 0.14.0 and 0.14.1, then ATTRIB() and SET_ATTRIB() in 0.14.2. Feature additions are rare and small, the last cluster being open-ended time-of-day subsetting and na.fill performance in 0.13.0.
dietr vs xts: 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.
xts
0.0ANALYTICS
xts is finished software, and its releases now track R's C API more than user requests.
◆ Current state
xts is the time-series class underpinning much of R's financial stack, and it behaves like infrastructure: the visible releases are bug fixes, plotting repairs and conformance work. A recurring thread is removing calls R no longer considers public — SET_TYPEOF in 0.14.0 and 0.14.1, then ATTRIB() and SET_ATTRIB() in 0.14.2. Feature additions are rare and small, the last cluster being open-ended time-of-day subsetting and na.fill performance in 0.13.0.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces drive releases. R core keeps narrowing its public C API, and xts keeps rewriting internals to stay inside it; separately, ggplot-era changes elsewhere in the ecosystem surface plotting bugs that get fixed one report at a time. Nearly every entry credits an outside reporter, which is what maintenance of a dependency this widely used looks like.
◆ Prediction
Further C API conformance work is the safest expectation, since two consecutive releases have each removed a different non-API entry point and R has continued tightening that boundary.
Alternatives to dietr and xts
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 xts.
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.
Recent activity from dietr and xts
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agoxtsmulti.panel plots beyond 8 columns; SET_TYPEOF removed from C
- 5mo agoxtsATTRIB removed from C; rollapply.xts accepts vector widths
- 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
- 2y agoxtsMulti-panel event lines; first SET_TYPEOF replacement
- 2y agoxtstclass changes now alter index values; log-scale y-axis added
- 3y agoxtsUpdate path for pre-0.12 objects missing index attributes
- 3y agodietrduckdb and rfishbase compatibility fixes
- 3y agoxtsOpen-ended time-of-day subsetting; fast scalar na.fill
- 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 xts?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dietr and xts 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 xts?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dietr and xts 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 xts?
Top xts alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "xts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/xts-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.