gps2gtfs
gps2gtfs spent a release making its docs stop describing functions it does not have.
Comparison · Analytics
pedFamilias vs vellumwidget
A side-by-side editorial comparison of pedFamilias and vellumwidget — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
pedFamilias vs vellumwidget: at a glance
What is pedFamilias?
pedFamilias exists to read one legacy file format, and it has that job nearly finished.
pedFamilias holds the Familias file interoperability code that was split out of forrel, principally readFam() and writeFam(). The visible history is short and narrow: URL paths accepted as input, a deduplicate option for files produced by the Familias DVI module, better handling of extra individuals, and a fallback mutation model when stabilization fails. The most recent release is explicitly maintenance.
What is vellumwidget?
vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.
vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.
pedFamilias vs vellumwidget: editorial side-by-side
pedFamilias
0.0ANALYTICS
pedFamilias exists to read one legacy file format, and it has that job nearly finished.
◆ Current state
pedFamilias holds the Familias file interoperability code that was split out of forrel, principally readFam() and writeFam(). The visible history is short and narrow: URL paths accepted as input, a deduplicate option for files produced by the Familias DVI module, better handling of extra individuals, and a fallback mutation model when stabilization fails. The most recent release is explicitly maintenance.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a package with a bounded remit. The format it parses does not change, so releases arrive only when someone encounters a file it mishandles, and the fixes are correspondingly specific. The interesting movement is upstream instead: forrel finally removed its deprecated readFam() re-export in 1.9.0, completing the split that created this package.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued low-frequency maintenance driven by real-world .fam files rather than any planned feature work.
vellumwidget
6.3ANALYTICS
vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.
◆ Current state
vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is declarative. 0.7.0 removed the interaction-intent arguments from as_widget() outright, dropping the signature from roughly 36 arguments to 24 and moving highlight, filter and cross-filter into vellumplot's spec via select_point(), condition() and filter_by(). Each release since has enacted more of that compiled spec on the frozen scene, from conditional encodings to single-view filters to cross-view cross-filtering, leaving the widget as an interpreter of the plot rather than a configuration surface of its own. The bug fixes track the same theme the engine's do: measured geometry and rendered geometry must not drift.
◆ Prediction
The notes name the remaining hold-outs explicitly, saying hover_mode, crosshair, legend_click, select_mode and the tooltip-appearance arguments remain only until their spec equivalents land, so the next releases most likely move those into vellumplot and shrink as_widget() further. The scale binds flagged as following the filter work are the other stated next step.
Alternatives to pedFamilias and vellumwidget
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 pedFamilias or vellumwidget.
ducksemantics
ducksemantics puts an ontology graph and ColBERT retrieval inside DuckDB, callable from R.
dvir
dvir keeps making disaster victim identification a single call instead of a workflow.
pedbuildr
pedbuildr reconstructs pedigrees from DNA, and it just got much faster at the search.
forrel
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
pedmut
pedmut turns awkward mutation models into ones the likelihood engine can actually handle.
See all pedFamilias alternatives → · See all vellumwidget alternatives →
Recent activity from pedFamilias and vellumwidget
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agovellumwidget2x raster base image for HiDPI, and exact element hit-testing
- 20d agovellumwidgetInteraction moves into the plot spec; as_widget() sheds a third of its arguments ⚡
- 27d agovellumwidgetAxis-aware zoom re-ticks the axes instead of scaling the whole scene
- 1mo agovellumwidgetSelectable native SVG text, and crisp canvas redraw when zooming raster
- 1mo agovellumwidgetServer-side proxy drives a rendered widget without re-rendering it
- 1mo agovellumwidgetShiny input read-back, and keyboard plus screen-reader access by default
- 2mo agopedFamiliasMaintenance release
- 1y agopedFamiliasreadFam() accepts URLs
- 2y agopedFamiliasExtra-individual parsing and mutation model fallback
- 2y agopedFamiliasdeduplicate option for Familias DVI files
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between pedFamilias and vellumwidget?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. vellumwidget is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 pedFamilias better than vellumwidget?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. vellumwidget is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 pedFamilias?
Top pedFamilias alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pedFamilias alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pedfamilias for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to vellumwidget?
Top vellumwidget alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "vellumwidget alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/vellumwidget for the full list with editorial commentary on each.