bittermelon
bittermelon is growing from binary bitmaps toward greyscale and color glyphs
Comparison · Analytics
gridpattern vs kernelshap
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gridpattern and kernelshap — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
gridpattern vs kernelshap: at a glance
What is gridpattern?
gridpattern keeps widening its catalogue, and the newest patterns finally use the device's own line rendering.
An R package supplying pattern fills for grid graphics — stripes, weaves, polygon tilings, images and placeholders. Releases are infrequent and irregular, roughly one or two a year with an eighteen-month gap before the most recent. The work divides between adding pattern types and making the existing ones behave consistently, particularly around units and how spacing parameters are interpreted.
What is kernelshap?
kernelshap makes permutation SHAP practical past eight features, then fixes the kernel weights it had wrong.
kernelshap computes model-agnostic SHAP values in R through Kernel SHAP, permutation SHAP and an exact additive explainer. Version 0.8.0 added a sampling permutation-SHAP algorithm with standard errors and early stopping, lifting the practical feature ceiling past what the exact method allows. Version 0.9.0 then corrected a bug in how kernel weights were computed — exact Kernel SHAP now agrees with exact permutation SHAP — and moved parallelism from foreach to doFuture.
gridpattern vs kernelshap: editorial side-by-side
gridpattern
0.0ANALYTICS
gridpattern keeps widening its catalogue, and the newest patterns finally use the device's own line rendering.
◆ Current state
An R package supplying pattern fills for grid graphics — stripes, weaves, polygon tilings, images and placeholders. Releases are infrequent and irregular, roughly one or two a year with an eighteen-month gap before the most recent. The work divides between adding pattern types and making the existing ones behave consistently, particularly around units and how spacing parameters are interpreted.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long-running efforts are visible. The first is unit consistency: v1.2.1 gave the geometry patterns a units parameter, v1.2.2 extended it to weave and fixed polygon tiling to respect it — the slow propagation of one design decision through a family of functions. The second is integration with R's own graphics capabilities, which reaches its clearest expression in v1.4.2's line pattern: rather than filling bands with solid colour as stripe does, it draws stroked lines through the device, so every built-in linetype including dotdash, twodash and custom hex specifications works. The package is also visibly maintaining its external dependencies, having rotated placeholder image services as hosts disappeared.
◆ Prediction
Expect further pattern types and continued propagation of the units parameter to any function still missing it; the entries give no indication of a change in the package's scope beyond pattern fills.
kernelshap
0.0ANALYTICS
kernelshap makes permutation SHAP practical past eight features, then fixes the kernel weights it had wrong.
◆ Current state
kernelshap computes model-agnostic SHAP values in R through Kernel SHAP, permutation SHAP and an exact additive explainer. Version 0.8.0 added a sampling permutation-SHAP algorithm with standard errors and early stopping, lifting the practical feature ceiling past what the exact method allows. Version 0.9.0 then corrected a bug in how kernel weights were computed — exact Kernel SHAP now agrees with exact permutation SHAP — and moved parallelism from foreach to doFuture.
◆ Where it's heading
Two concerns drive this package: making exact methods reach further, and being demonstrably right. The first shows in the additive explainer, the optional background dataset and the sampling permutation algorithm; the second in unit tests written against Python's shap, credited fixes from outside contributors, and a willingness to ship a correctness fix that changes numbers people have already published. Speed work runs continuously underneath — direct solves replacing the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse, roughly 10% less memory.
◆ Prediction
The 0.6.0 and 0.7.0 notes each promised a stable 1.0.0 that has not arrived; with the weighting bug fixed and parallelism reworked, a 1.0 release is the most plausible next step.
Alternatives to gridpattern and kernelshap
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 gridpattern or kernelshap.
epiworldR
epiworldR is a thin R shell whose releases track the C++ simulator underneath it
watina
A groundwater database client that has started doing the domain analysis too
inbospatial
A thin R wrapper over Flemish geospatial services, adding one standard at a time
Fluent Bit
Fluent Bit keeps two lines alive while the 5.x branch quietly opens 5.1.
OpenCTI
OpenCTI is rebuilding its connector layer into a marketplace and wiring the platform to XTM Hub
See all gridpattern alternatives → · See all kernelshap alternatives →
Recent activity from gridpattern and kernelshap
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agogridpatternHatch and line patterns added; wave gains ten new types
- 1y agokernelshapKernel weight bug fixed; parallelism moves to doFuture
- 1y agokernelshapSampling permutation SHAP with standard errors ⚡
- 1y agogridpatternaRtsy generative patterns available as fills
- 1y agokernelshapBackground data now optional; ranger survival support
- 2y agokernelshapFactor-valued predictions dropped
- 2y agogridpatternunits parameter reaches weave; polygon tiling honours it
- 2y agokernelshapadditive_shap() explains additive models exactly
- 2y agogridpatternpatternFill() returns a grid pattern object; patterns can nest
- 2y agokernelshapFaster on plain data.frames
- 2y agogridpatternText pattern example skipped on devices lacking the glyphs
- 2y agogridpatternreset_image_cache() added; R 4.1 feature detection offered standalone
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gridpattern and kernelshap?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. gridpattern and kernelshap 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 gridpattern better than kernelshap?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gridpattern and kernelshap 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 gridpattern?
Top gridpattern alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gridpattern alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gridpattern-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to kernelshap?
Top kernelshap alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "kernelshap alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kernelshap for the full list with editorial commentary on each.