gps2gtfs
gps2gtfs spent a release making its docs stop describing functions it does not have.
Comparison · Analytics
dvir vs vellumwidget
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dvir and vellumwidget — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dvir vs vellumwidget: at a glance
What is dvir?
dvir keeps making disaster victim identification a single call instead of a workflow.
dvir handles disaster victim identification: matching unidentified remains against reference families using pedigree likelihoods. The package has consolidated around dviSolve(), a complete pipeline introduced in 3.2.1 and rewritten in 3.3.0 to use generalised likelihood ratios for families with several missing persons. Recent releases have been about making that pipeline survive large cases, adding dviGridSize() and a maxAssign cutoff to skip joint analysis when the combination count explodes, plus per-step timings.
What is vellumwidget?
vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.
vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.
dvir vs vellumwidget: editorial side-by-side
dvir
0.0ANALYTICS
dvir keeps making disaster victim identification a single call instead of a workflow.
◆ Current state
dvir handles disaster victim identification: matching unidentified remains against reference families using pedigree likelihoods. The package has consolidated around dviSolve(), a complete pipeline introduced in 3.2.1 and rewritten in 3.3.0 to use generalised likelihood ratios for families with several missing persons. Recent releases have been about making that pipeline survive large cases, adding dviGridSize() and a maxAssign cutoff to skip joint analysis when the combination count explodes, plus per-step timings.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is from a toolbox of functions toward one supervised pipeline, with the older jointDVI() now emitting a legacy message. The current constraint is combinatorial: joint analysis over many victims and missing persons blows up, so the work has gone to measuring the blowup and bailing out of it. Parallelism is mid-migration, with the parallel and pbapply implementation removed and a mirai replacement stated as planned but not yet shipped, leaving numCores accepted and ignored with a warning.
◆ Prediction
The mirai-based parallelisation is announced as coming, so expect it next, most likely applied to the joint analysis step that maxAssign currently exists to avoid.
vellumwidget
6.3ANALYTICS
vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.
◆ Current state
vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is declarative. 0.7.0 removed the interaction-intent arguments from as_widget() outright, dropping the signature from roughly 36 arguments to 24 and moving highlight, filter and cross-filter into vellumplot's spec via select_point(), condition() and filter_by(). Each release since has enacted more of that compiled spec on the frozen scene, from conditional encodings to single-view filters to cross-view cross-filtering, leaving the widget as an interpreter of the plot rather than a configuration surface of its own. The bug fixes track the same theme the engine's do: measured geometry and rendered geometry must not drift.
◆ Prediction
The notes name the remaining hold-outs explicitly, saying hover_mode, crosshair, legend_click, select_mode and the tooltip-appearance arguments remain only until their spec equivalents land, so the next releases most likely move those into vellumplot and shrink as_widget() further. The scale binds flagged as following the filter work are the other stated next step.
Alternatives to dvir and vellumwidget
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 dvir or vellumwidget.
ducksemantics
ducksemantics puts an ontology graph and ColBERT retrieval inside DuckDB, callable from R.
pedbuildr
pedbuildr reconstructs pedigrees from DNA, and it just got much faster at the search.
forrel
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
pedFamilias
pedFamilias exists to read one legacy file format, and it has that job nearly finished.
pedmut
pedmut turns awkward mutation models into ones the likelihood engine can actually handle.
See all dvir alternatives → · See all vellumwidget alternatives →
Recent activity from dvir and vellumwidget
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agovellumwidget2x raster base image for HiDPI, and exact element hit-testing
- 20d agovellumwidgetInteraction moves into the plot spec; as_widget() sheds a third of its arguments ⚡
- 27d agovellumwidgetAxis-aware zoom re-ticks the axes instead of scaling the whole scene
- 1mo agovellumwidgetSelectable native SVG text, and crisp canvas redraw when zooming raster
- 1mo agovellumwidgetServer-side proxy drives a rendered widget without re-rendering it
- 1mo agovellumwidgetShiny input read-back, and keyboard plus screen-reader access by default
- 1mo agodvirCombination sizing and a cutoff for joint analysis
- 3mo agodvirJoint tables added to solver output
- 3mo agodvirVictim and database accessors, plus solver refinements
- 1y agodvirSolver rewritten around generalised likelihood ratios
- 2y agodvirdviSolve() pipeline and manual pairing controls
- 2y agodvirMaintainer handover and small reporting additions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dvir and vellumwidget?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. vellumwidget is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 dvir better than vellumwidget?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. vellumwidget is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 dvir?
Top dvir alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dvir alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dvir for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to vellumwidget?
Top vellumwidget alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "vellumwidget alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/vellumwidget for the full list with editorial commentary on each.