tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
Comparison · Analytics
enpls vs vellum
A side-by-side editorial comparison of enpls and vellum — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
enpls vs vellum: at a glance
What is enpls?
enpls has not changed its statistics since 2016 — only its website, twice.
enpls implements ensemble partial least squares regression, with variants for feature selection, outlier detection and model applicability. Across the six most recent releases there is not one change to the modeling code. They cover a documentation website, a website URL change, a font stack, code indentation, a CI service, and most recently a GitHub Actions migration with an R CMD check note fix.
What is vellum?
vellum's bugs are now found by using it, not testing it — the downstream grammar is doing the QA.
The rendering engine shipped nine releases in the two weeks around the end of July, six of them on a single day. Almost every entry is a correctness fix in a capability that worked when drawn and failed when measured, or worked in isolation and failed in composition. The release notes are unusually forensic: each one states the mechanism, the observable symptom, and why the fix mirrors the draw path rather than reimplementing it.
enpls vs vellum: editorial side-by-side
enpls
0.0ANALYTICS
enpls has not changed its statistics since 2016 — only its website, twice.
◆ Current state
enpls implements ensemble partial least squares regression, with variants for feature selection, outlier detection and model applicability. Across the six most recent releases there is not one change to the modeling code. They cover a documentation website, a website URL change, a font stack, code indentation, a CI service, and most recently a GitHub Actions migration with an R CMD check note fix.
◆ Where it's heading
The statistical work finished around version 5.6, which added cross-validation fold control and fixed component selection when the maximum was left unspecified. Everything since has kept the package installable and its docs online. The 2025 release arriving the same day as sibling package grex, with the same two fixes, confirms the pattern: these are maintainer sweeps across a portfolio, not attention to enpls specifically.
◆ Prediction
The next release will almost certainly be another CRAN or tooling fix. Six consecutive infrastructure-only releases across nine years give no basis for expecting new methods.
vellum
5.0ANALYTICS
vellum's bugs are now found by using it, not testing it — the downstream grammar is doing the QA.
◆ Current state
The rendering engine shipped nine releases in the two weeks around the end of July, six of them on a single day. Almost every entry is a correctness fix in a capability that worked when drawn and failed when measured, or worked in isolation and failed in composition. The release notes are unusually forensic: each one states the mechanism, the observable symptom, and why the fix mirrors the draw path rather than reimplementing it.
◆ Where it's heading
The pivotal detail is stated outright in 0.6.3 — the first bug in the series found by using the engine from vellumplot rather than testing it in isolation. Every release since names the downstream as the source: the contrast rule's false positives, the lint rules that fired on all five sample plots, the keyed roundrect batch. A rendering engine with a real grammar built on top of it is now getting the integration coverage that unit tests structurally cannot provide, and the fixes are converging on one theme: the measurement path and the draw path must not drift.
◆ Prediction
Expect the release rate to fall as the vellumplot integration surface is exhausted, with remaining work concentrated in the lint rule set now that it is meant to gate builds rather than just inform.
Alternatives to enpls and vellum
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 enpls or vellum.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
ggmagnify
A single-purpose ggplot2 inset tool, refining the same three arguments.
symengine
An R symbolic-maths binding whose changelog is really the C++ core's release notes.
gtfstools
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
quantities
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
See all enpls alternatives → · See all vellum alternatives →
Recent activity from enpls and vellum
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11d agovellumLinter grows to 20 rules and stops firing on every plot
- 13d agovellumAnimated SVGs no longer blink once and vanish or play in reverse
- 14d agovellumPick table now reports device pixels instead of two coordinate systems
- 15d agovellumContrast rule stops flagging every plot; gridlines become PDF artifacts
- 15d agovellumgrobwidth and grobheight now measure wrapped text, not the unwrapped line
- 15d agovellumKeyed roundrect becomes a real batch after downstream integration exposes it
- 1y agoenplsenpls 6.1.1 moves pkgdown to GitHub Actions
- 7y agoenplsenpls 6.1 adopts tidyverse code style
- 8y agoenplsenpls 6.0 changes the documentation URL
- 8y agoenplsenpls 5.9 drops Google Fonts from vignettes
- 9y agoenplsenpls 5.8 updates gallery images, enables HTTPS
- 9y agoenplsenpls 5.7 adds a pkgdown site and Windows CI
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between enpls and vellum?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. vellum is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 enpls better than vellum?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. vellum is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 enpls?
Top enpls alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "enpls alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/enpls for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to vellum?
Top vellum alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "vellum alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/vellum-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.