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The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of APCalign and ggdemetra — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
APCalign spent this year fixing the counts it had been quietly getting wrong
APCalign standardises Australian plant names against the APC and APNI taxonomic resources and derives state-level native/introduced status from them. The feed is GitHub releases tagged by resource download date rather than semantic version, so titles carry no information about content. The two 2026 releases are the only substantive ones in the window: infrataxa support in the diversity functions, then a fix for a grep that had been matching the wrong columns.
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
ggdemetra is a thin, focused bridge: it puts RJDemetra's seasonal adjustment results — TRAMO-SEATS and X-13 models — into ggplot2 geoms and autoplot methods. Development runs in short bursts separated by long quiet stretches, and the most recent work has been correcting SI ratio handling rather than adding surface. The API is small enough that a single function rename counts as the notable change in a release.
APCalign standardises Australian plant names against the APC and APNI taxonomic resources and derives state-level native/introduced status from them. The feed is GitHub releases tagged by resource download date rather than semantic version, so titles carry no information about content. The two 2026 releases are the only substantive ones in the window: infrataxa support in the diversity functions, then a fix for a grep that had been matching the wrong columns.
Development is driven by users reporting that outputs do not match what they expect, and the fixes keep landing in the same two functions — create_species_state_origin_matrix() and native_anywhere_in_australia(). The infrataxa parameter and the reordered output columns came from user requests; the guard-ordering and grep fixes came from a filed issue. What is emerging is that the origin-matrix logic was written loosely and is now being tightened case by case, with tests and state diversity benchmarks added alongside.
Both recent releases touched the same pair of functions and the fixes were found by inspection rather than by tests failing, so more corrections in the native-status path are the likely next content — the benchmarks added in March are the mechanism that would surface them.
ggdemetra is a thin, focused bridge: it puts RJDemetra's seasonal adjustment results — TRAMO-SEATS and X-13 models — into ggplot2 geoms and autoplot methods. Development runs in short bursts separated by long quiet stretches, and the most recent work has been correcting SI ratio handling rather than adding surface. The API is small enough that a single function rename counts as the notable change in a release.
The package has been steadily completing its coverage of the seasonal adjustment output surface: component extractors and autoplot methods in 0.2.3, SI ratio plotting in 0.2.5, then two releases of corrections to make SI ratios behave under TRAMO-SEATS jSA models and when no seasonal component is exported. Alongside that, the naming is being tidied — y_forecast() became raw(), and init_ggplot() shortened the setup boilerplate. This reads as a package approaching the edge of its intended scope and spending its effort on correctness.
Two consecutive releases fixing SI ratios under TRAMO-SEATS suggest that code path is the least settled part of the package, so further corrections there are the most likely next move. The entries give no indication of new model families or plot types being planned.
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 APCalign or ggdemetra.
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
See all APCalign alternatives → · See all ggdemetra alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. APCalign 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.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. APCalign 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.
Top APCalign alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "APCalign alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/apcalign-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top ggdemetra alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggdemetra alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggdemetra for the full list with editorial commentary on each.