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fabletools vs ymlthis

A side-by-side editorial comparison of fabletools and ymlthis — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

fabletools vs ymlthis: at a glance

Featurefabletoolsymlthis
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesforecasting, tidyverts, model-combination, reconciliationr-markdown, yaml, retirement, quarto
Last editorial update1h ago34m ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is fabletools?

The tidyverts forecasting core rebuilt model combination on full residual covariance.

fabletools is the framework layer under fable and fpp3 — mables, fables, accuracy measures, reconciliation, and the model arithmetic that lets forecasters express ensembles as expressions. Version 0.8.0 reworked that arithmetic: combination now uses a joint N-way convolution accounting for the full residual covariance across components rather than composing pairwise, and every arithmetic operator collapses to a single model_combination with correctly implied weights, so nested expressions like ((m1 + m2)/2 + m3)/2 flatten automatically. In parallel, the package has been shedding graphics to {ggtime} on a deliberately slow deprecation clock.

Read the full fabletools trajectory →

What is ymlthis?

ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.

ymlthis built R Markdown YAML front matter programmatically — a fluent `yml_*()` interface plus RStudio add-ins, so users did not have to hand-write metadata blocks whose valid fields were scattered across output-format documentation. Version 1.0.0 declares the package retired, with only CRAN-preserving changes to follow, and states the reason plainly: Quarto now provides good YAML support.

Read the full ymlthis trajectory →

fabletools vs ymlthis: editorial side-by-side

F
fabletools
ANALYTICS
0.0

The tidyverts forecasting core rebuilt model combination on full residual covariance.

◆ Current state

fabletools is the framework layer under fable and fpp3 — mables, fables, accuracy measures, reconciliation, and the model arithmetic that lets forecasters express ensembles as expressions. Version 0.8.0 reworked that arithmetic: combination now uses a joint N-way convolution accounting for the full residual covariance across components rather than composing pairwise, and every arithmetic operator collapses to a single model_combination with correctly implied weights, so nested expressions like ((m1 + m2)/2 + m3)/2 flatten automatically. In parallel, the package has been shedding graphics to {ggtime} on a deliberately slow deprecation clock.

◆ Where it's heading

The framework is being narrowed and deepened at the same time. Narrowed, because plotting is moving out to a dedicated package over an announced two-year deprecation, leaving fabletools to modeling infrastructure. Deepened, because the recent statistical work targets correctness in places users could not easily inspect — combination weights, inverse-variance weighting computed on response rather than innovation residuals, reconciliation coherency matrices exposed via coherent_smat() and coherent_cmat(). Class hygiene follows the same instinct, with mdl_lst replacing lst_mdl and gaining augment(), glance(), and tidy() so global and reconciliation models report statistics like any other.

◆ Prediction

With combination and reconciliation infrastructure freshly reworked, the remaining announced work is the ggtime separation, so expect the graphics re-exports to keep degrading toward removal while modeling changes stay incremental.

Y
ymlthis
ANALYTICS
0.0

ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.

◆ Current state

ymlthis built R Markdown YAML front matter programmatically — a fluent `yml_*()` interface plus RStudio add-ins, so users did not have to hand-write metadata blocks whose valid fields were scattered across output-format documentation. Version 1.0.0 declares the package retired, with only CRAN-preserving changes to follow, and states the reason plainly: Quarto now provides good YAML support.

◆ Where it's heading

The retirement is the endpoint of a long drift. Between 2020 and 2022 every release was reactive — patching around a crayon update that mangled rendered YAML, tracking shiny 1.6, following roxygen2 7.0.0, fixing a typo in an add-in. No new capability has landed in six years, and the four-year gap before 1.0.0 had already answered the question the release note finally makes explicit.

◆ Prediction

Nothing further of substance is expected — the stated policy is changes only where CRAN requires them, so the next release, if any, will be a compatibility patch.

Alternatives to fabletools and ymlthis

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 fabletools or ymlthis.

See all fabletools alternatives → · See all ymlthis alternatives →

Recent activity from fabletools and ymlthis

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1mo agofabletoolsModel combination rebuilt on joint N-way convolution
  2. 3mo agofabletoolsCoherency matrices exposed, mdl_lst gains tidier methods
  3. 5mo agoymlthisymlthis retired; Quarto covers the need
  4. 5mo agofabletoolsGraphics methods now require fabletools to be attached
  5. 6mo agofabletoolsTime series graphics migrating out to ggtime
  6. 8mo agofabletoolsggplot2 4.0.0 compatibility patch
  7. 8mo agofabletoolsIRF() generic and multivariate bootstrap sample paths
  8. 4y agoymlthisTypo fixed in the miniUI add-in check
  9. 4y agoymlthisyml_author() accepts yml_blank(); shiny fixes
  10. 4y agoymlthisciteproc handling moved to newer rmarkdown functions
  11. 5y agoymlthisPatched a crayon update that mangled rendered YAML
  12. 5y agoymlthisAdjustments for shiny 1.6

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between fabletools and ymlthis?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. fabletools and ymlthis 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 fabletools better than ymlthis?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. fabletools and ymlthis 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 fabletools?

Top fabletools alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fabletools alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fabletools for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to ymlthis?

Top ymlthis alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ymlthis alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ymlthis for the full list with editorial commentary on each.