mlr3proba
mlr3proba is shedding weight as its survival work moves into sibling packages
Comparison · Analytics
tidytext vs workflows
A side-by-side editorial comparison of tidytext and workflows — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
tidytext vs workflows: at a glance
What is tidytext?
Finished, widely taught, and shipping roxygen fixes.
tidytext is the package that made unnest_tokens() and the tidy-data approach to text analysis standard, and it has reached the point where its releases contain nothing to announce. The last three are roxygen package anchors, alt text on vignette figures, and a single bug fix in one stm tidier. The most recent substantive changes were in 0.4.0 and 0.3.3 — stm tidiers for high FREX and lift words, a labels function for scale_x_reordered(), and support for tidying STM models that use content covariates.
What is workflows?
The tidymodels pipeline grew a third stage, and it happens after the model runs.
workflows bundles a preprocessor and a model into one object that tidymodels can fit, tune and extract from. Version 1.3.0 added a post stage backed by the tailor package, wired through every generic a workflow supports — augment, tidy, tunable, tune_args, required_pkgs and parameter extraction. Version 1.2.0 added sparse data support so fit() and predict() accept dgCMatrix and sparse tibbles. Earlier releases in view are boundary tightening: erroring on unknown model modes, on trained recipes, and on silently ignored formula offsets.
tidytext vs workflows: editorial side-by-side
tidytext
0.0ANALYTICS
Finished, widely taught, and shipping roxygen fixes.
◆ Current state
tidytext is the package that made unnest_tokens() and the tidy-data approach to text analysis standard, and it has reached the point where its releases contain nothing to announce. The last three are roxygen package anchors, alt text on vignette figures, and a single bug fix in one stm tidier. The most recent substantive changes were in 0.4.0 and 0.3.3 — stm tidiers for high FREX and lift words, a labels function for scale_x_reordered(), and support for tidying STM models that use content covariates.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is stability, and the release triggers are external. quanteda releases force updates to the dfm tidiers, a Matrix release forces another, tokenizers deprecating its tweet tokenizer forces removal of the tweet-specific functions here, and CRAN's Rd anchor requirement produces a release of its own. Nothing in the recent stream suggests new capability is planned, and for a package this embedded in teaching material that is a defensible position rather than a problem.
◆ Prediction
The entries do not support predicting new features. The likely next release is another compatibility update prompted by quanteda, stm, or a CRAN documentation requirement.
workflows
0.0ANALYTICS
The tidymodels pipeline grew a third stage, and it happens after the model runs.
◆ Current state
workflows bundles a preprocessor and a model into one object that tidymodels can fit, tune and extract from. Version 1.3.0 added a post stage backed by the tailor package, wired through every generic a workflow supports — augment, tidy, tunable, tune_args, required_pkgs and parameter extraction. Version 1.2.0 added sparse data support so fit() and predict() accept dgCMatrix and sparse tibbles. Earlier releases in view are boundary tightening: erroring on unknown model modes, on trained recipes, and on silently ignored formula offsets.
◆ Where it's heading
The object is filling out into a complete pipeline description rather than a preprocessing-plus-model pair. Postprocessing is the structural addition — calibration and threshold selection were previously done by hand after prediction, outside anything tidymodels could tune or record — and the fact that it arrived integrated with tunable() and tune_args() rather than as a standalone step is the point. The rest of the arc is the steady tidymodels habit of converting silent guesses into errors.
◆ Prediction
Expect tailor postprocessors to spread through tune and workflowsets next, since the parameter and tuning generics were wired up first, and expect sparse support to extend to more engines after lightgbm.
Alternatives to tidytext and workflows
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 tidytext or workflows.
mlr3viz
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
mlr3tuning
mlr3tuning is rebuilding its async machinery under a stable public surface
timetk
timetk swallowed anomalize whole, then went quiet for two years
modelbased
modelbased is turning marginal effects into a full contrast grammar
parameters
easystats' parameters package absorbs one more model class every few weeks
See all tidytext alternatives → · See all workflows alternatives →
Recent activity from tidytext and workflows
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agoworkflowsWorkflows gain a postprocessing stage via tailor ⚡
- 1y agotidytextUpdate roxygen package anchors for CRAN
- 1y agoworkflowsSparse matrices work through fit() and predict()
- 2y agotidytextFigure alt text and a quanteda v4 vignette update
- 2y agoworkflowsaugment() aligns with parsnip; censored regression supported
- 3y agoworkflowsRegister tuning generics unconditionally
- 3y agotidytextFix the FREX stm tidier
- 3y agotidytextFREX and lift tidiers added; tweet tokenizers removed
- 3y agoworkflowsMissing parsnip extensions now error early; unsupervised specs supported
- 3y agoworkflowsMode guessing removed; silent offset handling now errors
- 3y agotidytextUpdate dfm tidier for the upcoming Matrix release
- 4y agotidytextReordered scales take a labels function; STM content models tidied
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between tidytext and workflows?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. tidytext and workflows 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 tidytext better than workflows?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. tidytext and workflows 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 tidytext?
Top tidytext alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidytext alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidytext for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to workflows?
Top workflows alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "workflows alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/workflows-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.