tidytext
Finished, widely taught, and shipping roxygen fixes.
Comparison · Analytics
loo vs textrecipes
A side-by-side editorial comparison of loo and textrecipes — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
loo vs textrecipes: at a glance
What is loo?
loo keeps rewriting the diagnostics Bayesian modellers read off model comparison
loo computes leave-one-out cross-validation and model comparison for Bayesian models in the Stan ecosystem. Two releases in this window changed what users actually read: 2.7.0 replaced the fixed Pareto-k thresholds with sample-size-dependent ones and dropped the middle category, and 2.10.0 reshaped loo_compare's output into a data.frame with new uncertainty columns. The releases between are diagnostic robustness fixes and moment-matching corrections.
What is textrecipes?
Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.
textrecipes supplies the recipes steps for turning text into model-ready columns: tokenizing, hashing, term frequency, TF-IDF, and word embeddings. Version 1.1.0 added a sparse argument to step_dummy_hash(), step_texthash(), step_tf() and step_tfidf() so they emit sparse vectors. The releases before it are a long consistency pass — keep_original_cols on every step that creates columns, informative errors on name collisions, tunable arguments documented, integer rather than double output where integers are what is meant.
loo vs textrecipes: editorial side-by-side
loo
2.5ANALYTICS
loo keeps rewriting the diagnostics Bayesian modellers read off model comparison
◆ Current state
loo computes leave-one-out cross-validation and model comparison for Bayesian models in the Stan ecosystem. Two releases in this window changed what users actually read: 2.7.0 replaced the fixed Pareto-k thresholds with sample-size-dependent ones and dropped the middle category, and 2.10.0 reshaped loo_compare's output into a data.frame with new uncertainty columns. The releases between are diagnostic robustness fixes and moment-matching corrections.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being brought in line with the current PSIS literature rather than extended with new features, and the practical effect is that the numbers practitioners quote in papers keep changing meaning. Work is increasingly delegated to posterior for shared computations, and the project has added contributor process, benchmarks and a published AI contribution policy.
◆ Prediction
Expect further work on comparison diagnostics — the p_worse and diag_* columns are new enough that their defaults and documentation will likely be revised next.
textrecipes
0.0ANALYTICS
Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.
◆ Current state
textrecipes supplies the recipes steps for turning text into model-ready columns: tokenizing, hashing, term frequency, TF-IDF, and word embeddings. Version 1.1.0 added a sparse argument to step_dummy_hash(), step_texthash(), step_tf() and step_tfidf() so they emit sparse vectors. The releases before it are a long consistency pass — keep_original_cols on every step that creates columns, informative errors on name collisions, tunable arguments documented, integer rather than double output where integers are what is meant.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces drive this package. One is memory: text produces wide, mostly-zero matrices, and the sparse work is the direct answer, landing in the same period that workflows learned to fit and predict on dgCMatrix input. The other is upstream churn — the tweets tokenizer was deprecated because tokenizers deprecated it, the politeness feature disappeared when textfeatures left Suggests. The package's own agenda is consistency; its release timing belongs to its dependencies.
◆ Prediction
Expect the sparse argument to spread to the remaining column-producing steps, since only four of them have it, and expect more steps to be reworked as recipes' own sparse-data support matures.
Alternatives to loo and textrecipes
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 loo or textrecipes.
probably
The package that made calibration a step instead of an afterthought.
workflowsets
workflowsets keeps widening what counts as a model worth comparing.
workflows
The tidymodels pipeline grew a third stage, and it happens after the model runs.
vetiver
Posit's MLOps package went quiet for two years, then came back to keep up with recipes.
patchwork
patchwork stopped being a ggplot composer and became a page composer.
See all loo alternatives → · See all textrecipes alternatives →
Recent activity from loo and textrecipes
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 20d agoloopsis_smooth_tail revert and simplify arg restored
- 1mo agolooloo_compare returns a data.frame with new uncertainty columns ⚡
- 7mo agolooStacking overflow fixes and posterior-based ESS
- 1y agotextrecipesHashing and TF-IDF steps can emit sparse vectors ⚡
- 1y agotextrecipesstep_textfeatures() sped up; clean_levels NA bug fixed
- 2y agolooMore robust Pareto-k diagnostics and moment matching
- 2y agolooPareto-k thresholds now depend on sample size ⚡
- 2y agotextrecipestextfeatures dependency dropped; politeness feature removed
- 2y agotextrecipesuntokenize and normalization return factors
- 2y agotextrecipeskeep_original_cols everywhere; hashing column order fixed
- 3y agotextrecipesTunable arguments documented; name collisions now error
- 3y agolooLOO predictive metrics and CRPS scoring functions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between loo and textrecipes?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. loo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 loo better than textrecipes?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. loo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 loo?
Top loo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "loo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/loo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to textrecipes?
Top textrecipes alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "textrecipes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/textrecipes for the full list with editorial commentary on each.