randomwalk
randomwalk spent every release getting an R simulation to run in the browser, not on a server.
Comparison · Analytics
fillpattern vs forecasting
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fillpattern and forecasting — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
fillpattern vs forecasting: at a glance
What is fillpattern?
Pattern fills for ggplot2, hardened against the ways users write sizes
fillpattern provides pattern fills — stripes, bricks, dots — for ggplot2 and base R graphics, aimed at figures that must stay legible in greyscale or to colour-blind readers. The 1.0.3 release is mostly defensive: size modifier strings ending in a colon no longer swap width for height, modify_size() reports invalid units instead of crashing and understands in, inches and cm, and a background colour bug in scale_fill_pattern() is fixed. The minimum R version rises to 4.2.0 for recent graphics engine features.
What is forecasting?
HIDDA.forecasting is a book chapter's reproducibility artifact, not a package under development.
HIDDA.forecasting accompanies a book chapter on forecasting infectious disease counts; its vignettes reproduce the results presented there using arima, prophet, glarma, hhh4contacts and scoringRules. The 1.0.0 release states this outright — it is the version used for the chapter, pinned to CRAN package versions as of July 2018. Every release since has been a vignette rebuild against newer R and dependency versions.
fillpattern vs forecasting: editorial side-by-side
fillpattern
0.0ANALYTICS
Pattern fills for ggplot2, hardened against the ways users write sizes
◆ Current state
fillpattern provides pattern fills — stripes, bricks, dots — for ggplot2 and base R graphics, aimed at figures that must stay legible in greyscale or to colour-blind readers. The 1.0.3 release is mostly defensive: size modifier strings ending in a colon no longer swap width for height, modify_size() reports invalid units instead of crashing and understands in, inches and cm, and a background colour bug in scale_fill_pattern() is fixed. The minimum R version rises to 4.2.0 for recent graphics engine features.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is slow and entirely reactive to how the string-based size interface fails. The pattern across releases is the same: a user hits an edge — very small fill areas in 1.0.2, malformed unit strings in 1.0.3 — and the fix is either a graceful fallback or a clearer error. Leaning on R's newer graphics engine rather than reimplementing pattern rendering keeps the package small at the cost of raising its version floor.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases to stay in the same register: parsing and validation fixes for the size and unit interface, with the pattern set itself unlikely to change.
forecasting
0.0ANALYTICS
HIDDA.forecasting is a book chapter's reproducibility artifact, not a package under development.
◆ Current state
HIDDA.forecasting accompanies a book chapter on forecasting infectious disease counts; its vignettes reproduce the results presented there using arima, prophet, glarma, hhh4contacts and scoringRules. The 1.0.0 release states this outright — it is the version used for the chapter, pinned to CRAN package versions as of July 2018. Every release since has been a vignette rebuild against newer R and dependency versions.
◆ Where it's heading
The release pattern is maintenance on an eight-year cadence dictated entirely by the surrounding ecosystem: 1.1.1 rebuilt under R 4.0.4, 1.1.2 under R 4.3.2, 1.1.3 under R 4.6.1, each reporting whether the numbers moved. They mostly have not — the recurring note is minor numerical differences confined to the prophet forecasts in vignette('CHILI_prophet'). The only substantive change in the visible history is 1.1.0's methodological tidy-up of the scoring comparisons.
◆ Prediction
Nothing in these entries points to new functionality; the next release is most likely another vignette rebuild whenever a dependency change or a CRAN check failure forces one.
Alternatives to fillpattern and forecasting
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 fillpattern or forecasting.
fastml
fastml added survival modelling and leakage-proof resampling, moving past classification and regression.
abclass
abclass built out angle-based classifiers in 2022, then went quiet except for CRAN upkeep.
churon
churon is spending its entire release history getting a Rust ONNX binding through CRAN.
firatheme
firatheme woke up after four years and started fixing what ggplot2 changed underneath it.
bagyo
bagyo reached CRAN as a Philippine tropical cyclone dataset, with its tags stamped out of order.
See all fillpattern alternatives → · See all forecasting alternatives →
Recent activity from fillpattern and forecasting
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoforecastingVignettes rebuilt under R 4.6.1
- 6mo agofillpatternSize string parsing fixed; invalid units now report instead of crash
- 2y agofillpatternSmall fill areas no longer crash; min_size falls back to solid
- 2y agofillpatternfillpattern 1.0.1
- 2y agoforecastingVignettes rebuilt under R 4.3.2
- 5y agoforecastingVignettes rebuilt under R 4.0.4
- 7y agoforecastingStandard PIT and discretized log-normal scoring
- 7y agoforecastingThe version used for the book chapter, with pinned dependencies
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between fillpattern and forecasting?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. fillpattern and forecasting 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 fillpattern better than forecasting?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. fillpattern and forecasting 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 fillpattern?
Top fillpattern alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fillpattern alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fillpattern for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to forecasting?
Top forecasting alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "forecasting alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/forecasting for the full list with editorial commentary on each.