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quantities vs spatstat

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

Shared themes:r-package

quantities vs spatstat: at a glance

Featurequantitiesspatstat
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesunits, measurement-uncertainty, error-propagation, r-packagespatial-statistics, r-package, metapackage, documentation
Last editorial update1h ago11h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is quantities?

The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.

quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.

Read the full quantities trajectory →

What is spatstat?

The spatstat umbrella package, now mostly a pointer to the sub-packages doing the work

spatstat is the front package of a family that was split into specialised components — spatstat.geom, spatstat.random, spatstat.model, spatstat.explore, spatstat.univar and spatstat.sparse. Its own release notes reflect that: entries in this window are largely announcements of where the real changes landed, plus documentation and cross-reference maintenance. The codebase it fronts passed 200,000 lines as of 3.5-1.

Read the full spatstat trajectory →

quantities vs spatstat: editorial side-by-side

Q
quantities
ANALYTICS
0.0

The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.

◆ Current state

quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.

◆ Where it's heading

The design settled with 0.2.0, which made uncertainty unit-aware and added correlation and covariance support for quantities objects. Since then the package behaves like the integration layer it is — releasing when units, errors, dplyr or ggplot2 shift underneath it rather than on its own schedule. Several releases consist only of test repairs against upstream changes.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next release to follow a units or errors change rather than introduce new behaviour of its own.

S
spatstat
ANALYTICS
0.0

The spatstat umbrella package, now mostly a pointer to the sub-packages doing the work

◆ Current state

spatstat is the front package of a family that was split into specialised components — spatstat.geom, spatstat.random, spatstat.model, spatstat.explore, spatstat.univar and spatstat.sparse. Its own release notes reflect that: entries in this window are largely announcements of where the real changes landed, plus documentation and cross-reference maintenance. The codebase it fronts passed 200,000 lines as of 3.5-1.

◆ Where it's heading

The split is effectively complete and the umbrella's role has settled into coordination — tracking version dependencies across sub-packages and pointing users to them. The family has kept subdividing over this period, with spatstat.univar joining in 3.1-0. The one substantive user-facing addition here is documentation infrastructure: 3.3-0 added the ability to list the history of changes to a specific function, which is a navigational answer to a codebase now spread across many packages.

◆ Prediction

Expect this package's notes to continue summarising sub-package activity rather than carrying features of its own, since every release in this window does exactly that. Read spatstat.geom, spatstat.random and spatstat.model for the substance.

Alternatives to quantities and spatstat

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 quantities or spatstat.

See all quantities alternatives → · See all spatstat alternatives →

Recent activity from quantities and spatstat

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

  1. 2mo agospatstatSub-package updates across sparse, univar and random
  2. 6mo agospatstatspatstat passes 200,000 lines of code
  3. 10mo agospatstatNew vignette documenting NA spatial objects
  4. 1y agoquantitiesFixes covariance and correlation implementations
  5. 1y agospatstatPer-function change history now listable
  6. 2y agoquantitiesFaster data.frame methods
  7. 2y agospatstatspatstat.univar joins the package family
  8. 3y agospatstatSub-package cross-references and docs corrected
  9. 3y agoquantitiesTest fixes for an upstream units change
  10. 3y agoquantitiesUncertainty becomes unit-aware; adds correlation support
  11. 5y agoquantitiesCompatibility fix for units 0.7-0
  12. 6y agoquantitiesFixes uncertainty propagation for offset unit conversions

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between quantities and spatstat?

Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. quantities and spatstat 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 quantities better than spatstat?

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

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

What are the best alternatives to spatstat?

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