tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
Comparison · Analytics
errors vs seriation
A side-by-side editorial comparison of errors and seriation — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
errors vs seriation: at a glance
What is errors?
errors keeps making uncertainty print the way each scientific field expects.
errors attaches uncertainty to numeric vectors and propagates it automatically through arithmetic, as part of the r-quantities family alongside units. The propagation core is settled; recent releases concentrate on presentation and integration — PDG rounding rules in 0.4.2, decimal support in parenthesis notation in 0.4.3, and ggplot2 deprecation tracking in 0.4.1 and 0.4.4.
What is seriation?
seriation stopped shipping algorithms and started shipping a way to pick between them.
seriation finds meaningful orderings for matrices, distance objects and dendrograms, and carries a large registry of methods from classic combinatorial criteria to t-SNE and UMAP embeddings. The 1.5.0 release added a layer above that registry — seriate_best(), seriate_rep() and seriate_improve() — which run randomized methods repeatedly, in parallel, and keep the best result. Recent work is definitional and numeric rather than additive: 1.5.8 corrects the linear seriation criterion to match Hubert and Schultz's original 1976 definition.
errors vs seriation: editorial side-by-side
errors
0.0ANALYTICS
errors keeps making uncertainty print the way each scientific field expects.
◆ Current state
errors attaches uncertainty to numeric vectors and propagates it automatically through arithmetic, as part of the r-quantities family alongside units. The propagation core is settled; recent releases concentrate on presentation and integration — PDG rounding rules in 0.4.2, decimal support in parenthesis notation in 0.4.3, and ggplot2 deprecation tracking in 0.4.1 and 0.4.4.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through this history. One is formatting convergence: uncertainty has field-specific conventions, and the package has been absorbing them one contributed pull request at a time rather than imposing a single style. The other is keeping the errors class first-class everywhere R users work — vctrs methods for dplyr 1.0, a geom_errors() layer for ggplot2, missing-value and duplicate handling. Both are integration work, which is what a type-extension package mostly is.
◆ Prediction
Expect further formatting conventions to arrive as contributions, following PDG rounding and the decimals option, plus continued upkeep against ggplot2 aesthetic deprecations that have forced two of the last four releases.
seriation
0.0ANALYTICS
seriation stopped shipping algorithms and started shipping a way to pick between them.
◆ Current state
seriation finds meaningful orderings for matrices, distance objects and dendrograms, and carries a large registry of methods from classic combinatorial criteria to t-SNE and UMAP embeddings. The 1.5.0 release added a layer above that registry — seriate_best(), seriate_rep() and seriate_improve() — which run randomized methods repeatedly, in parallel, and keep the best result. Recent work is definitional and numeric rather than additive: 1.5.8 corrects the linear seriation criterion to match Hubert and Schultz's original 1976 definition.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has shifted from breadth to judgment. Through 1.3.x the additions were new methods; from 1.5.0 the registry started carrying metadata about the methods — whether they are randomized, what criterion they optimize — so the package could choose and evaluate on the user's behalf. The 1.5.6 replacement of FORTRAN with C for BEA and ME points the same way, reducing the legacy surface underneath that machinery.
◆ Prediction
Further criterion audits are the likeliest next move, since 1.5.8 shows a published definition being reconciled against the implementation and the registry now records what each method optimizes. Expect corrections rather than new seriation algorithms.
Alternatives to errors and seriation
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 errors or seriation.
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 errors alternatives → · See all seriation alternatives →
Recent activity from errors and seriation
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 0y agoseriationseriation 1.5.8 realigns linear criterion with Hubert and Schultz
- 1y agoerrorserrors 0.4.4 replaces deprecated geom_errorbarh()
- 1y agoerrorserrors 0.4.3 supports decimals in parenthesis notation
- 1y agoseriationseriation 1.5.7 adds BK_unconstrained, handles tiny inputs
- 1y agoseriationseriation 1.5.6 replaces FORTRAN BEA with C, modernizes allocation
- 2y agoerrorserrors 0.4.2 adds PDG rounding rules
- 2y agoseriationseriation 1.5.5 digest: AOE method, rep parameter, MDS_angle fix
- 2y agoerrorserrors 0.4.1 handles missing values, fixes na.rm
- 3y agoseriationseriation 1.5.1 refines pimage, permute and hmap
- 3y agoseriationseriation 1.5.0 adds seriate_best and parallel repeated search ⚡
- 3y agoerrorserrors 0.4.0 adds geom_errors() for automatic errorbars
- 5y agoerrorserrors 0.3.6
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between errors and seriation?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. errors and seriation 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 errors better than seriation?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. errors and seriation 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 errors?
Top errors alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "errors alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/errors-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to seriation?
Top seriation alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "seriation alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/seriation-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.