nflreadr
The nflverse data loader, whose releases are dictated by the NFL calendar and CRAN's archive policy
Comparison · Analytics
e2tree vs qtl2fst
A side-by-side editorial comparison of e2tree and qtl2fst — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
e2tree vs qtl2fst: at a glance
What is e2tree?
The explainable-ensemble-tree package now measures whether its own explanations are faithful.
e2tree builds a single interpretable tree that approximates a fitted ensemble, working from the proximity structure the ensemble induces between observations. The 1.0.0 release added the piece that had been missing: a Goodness of Interpretability index quantifying how well the approximating tree reconstructs the ensemble's own proximity matrix, with a permutation test for significance. Interactive visualisation and a C++ backend with OpenMP parallelism arrived alongside, and support now spans ranger and CatBoost as well as the original targets.
What is qtl2fst?
The out-of-memory backend for R/qtl2, feature-complete since 2020 and now purely on upkeep
qtl2fst backs R/qtl2 genotype probabilities with on-disk fst files so large crosses don't have to fit in RAM. Its defining release was 0.22 in 2020, which added calc_genoprob_fst() and genoprob_to_alleleprob_fst() to fuse calculation and storage in one step. The five releases since are documentation links, directory-creation robustness, a Windows example fix, and — in 0.32 — a change to how cores=0 is interpreted.
e2tree vs qtl2fst: editorial side-by-side
e2tree
0.0ANALYTICS
The explainable-ensemble-tree package now measures whether its own explanations are faithful.
◆ Current state
e2tree builds a single interpretable tree that approximates a fitted ensemble, working from the proximity structure the ensemble induces between observations. The 1.0.0 release added the piece that had been missing: a Goodness of Interpretability index quantifying how well the approximating tree reconstructs the ensemble's own proximity matrix, with a permutation test for significance. Interactive visualisation and a C++ backend with OpenMP parallelism arrived alongside, and support now spans ranger and CatBoost as well as the original targets.
◆ Where it's heading
Development has moved from producing an explanation to defending it. The GoI index and its permutation test change the package's claim from here is a tree that resembles your ensemble to here is how closely it resembles it and whether that could have happened by chance — the question a reviewer asks of any surrogate model. Around that, the work is engineering: the proximity matrix construction moved from R-level parallel loops into C++ with thread-level parallelism, and recent releases have been absorbing the awkwardness of supporting multiple ensemble backends, where a multi-class CatBoost objective returns a score matrix where a vector was expected. Interactive visNetwork output and standalone HTML export point at explanations meant to be shared rather than only inspected.
◆ Prediction
Given how much recent effort has gone into per-backend adapters, expect further work on ensemble compatibility; the entries do not indicate whether the interpretability index is heading toward comparing surrogate trees against each other.
qtl2fst
0.0ANALYTICS
The out-of-memory backend for R/qtl2, feature-complete since 2020 and now purely on upkeep
◆ Current state
qtl2fst backs R/qtl2 genotype probabilities with on-disk fst files so large crosses don't have to fit in RAM. Its defining release was 0.22 in 2020, which added calc_genoprob_fst() and genoprob_to_alleleprob_fst() to fuse calculation and storage in one step. The five releases since are documentation links, directory-creation robustness, a Windows example fix, and — in 0.32 — a change to how cores=0 is interpreted.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has settled into the role of a stable satellite of R/qtl2: it tracks the parent package's conventions rather than setting its own. The cores=0 change in 0.32 arrived alongside the identical change in qtl2convert, so the parallel-computing default is being standardized across the maintainer's packages at once. Release intervals have stretched from months to years.
◆ Prediction
Further releases will most likely mirror changes originating in R/qtl2 or CRAN checks, in the same follow-the-parent pattern as 0.24 and 0.32.
Alternatives to e2tree and qtl2fst
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 e2tree or qtl2fst.
susier
Fine-mapping workhorse susieR spends its releases hunting null-effect trimming bugs
UCell
A rank-based gene signature scorer that has grown by adapting to whatever object format single-cell R uses next
detectseparation
A diagnostic package that generalized past its own name, then learned to say which kind of separation it found
brglm2
A bias-reduction package reaches 1.0 by adding an estimator built for high-dimensional logistic regression
bayestools
The JAGS toolkit under RoBMA, shipping the standardization machinery its downstream rewrite needed
See all e2tree alternatives → · See all qtl2fst alternatives →
Recent activity from e2tree and qtl2fst
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoqtl2fstcores=0 now leaves one core free instead of taking all
- 3mo agoe2treeCatBoost multi-class and loss-function handling repaired
- 4mo agoe2treeA significance-tested measure of explanation fidelity ⚡
- 1y agoe2treeranger models supported
- 1y agoqtl2fstWindows fix for the replace_path() example
- 2y agoqtl2fstDocumentation link fix
- 4y agoqtl2fstCreates missing directories instead of erroring out
- 5y agoqtl2fstTest coverage for qtl2 functions against fst-backed probabilities
- 6y agoqtl2fstDocumentation and metadata cleanup for CRAN
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between e2tree and qtl2fst?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. e2tree and qtl2fst 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 e2tree better than qtl2fst?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. e2tree and qtl2fst 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 e2tree?
Top e2tree alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "e2tree alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/e2tree for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to qtl2fst?
Top qtl2fst alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qtl2fst alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qtl2fst for the full list with editorial commentary on each.