tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
Comparison · Analytics
arulesViz vs treespace
A side-by-side editorial comparison of arulesViz and treespace — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:maintenance-mode
arulesViz vs treespace: at a glance
What is arulesViz?
arulesViz finished its move to ggplot2 and has been coasting on maintenance since.
arulesViz draws the association rules produced by arules — scatterplots, matrix and grouped-matrix views, rule graphs, and a Shiny explorer. The rendering foundation has been settled since 1.5.0 made ggplot2 the default engine for most plots. The two most recent releases contain no new capability: roxygen migration and deprecation catch-up in 1.5.3, and a partial-argument-match cleanup in 1.5.4 that landed the same week as the identical fix in sibling package seriation.
What is treespace?
treespace ships once every year or two, and only when CRAN or a user forces it.
treespace explores and compares sets of phylogenetic and transmission trees, including the tree-distance measures used in outbreak reconstruction. Its release history is entirely reactive: five updates across five years, each triggered by a CRAN policy change, an upstream package removal, or a bug someone reported. The most recent is an Rd cross-reference format patch plus a maintainer email change.
arulesViz vs treespace: editorial side-by-side
arulesViz
0.0ANALYTICS
arulesViz finished its move to ggplot2 and has been coasting on maintenance since.
◆ Current state
arulesViz draws the association rules produced by arules — scatterplots, matrix and grouped-matrix views, rule graphs, and a Shiny explorer. The rendering foundation has been settled since 1.5.0 made ggplot2 the default engine for most plots. The two most recent releases contain no new capability: roxygen migration and deprecation catch-up in 1.5.3, and a partial-argument-match cleanup in 1.5.4 that landed the same week as the identical fix in sibling package seriation.
◆ Where it's heading
The 2021 releases were a deliberate consolidation. 1.4-0 added ggplot2 engines and cut plotly_arules and the experimental iplots support out of the interface; 1.5.0 promoted ggplot2 to default and exposed the conversions to igraph and matrix so users could build their own views; 1.5-1 filled gaps in the graph and grouped-matrix methods. Since then the package tracks its dependencies rather than extending itself, which is a reasonable end state for a mature visualization layer.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued reactive releases keyed to ggplot2 and igraph deprecations, which have driven two of the last three updates. Nothing in these entries suggests new plot methods are planned.
treespace
0.0ANALYTICS
treespace ships once every year or two, and only when CRAN or a user forces it.
◆ Current state
treespace explores and compares sets of phylogenetic and transmission trees, including the tree-distance measures used in outbreak reconstruction. Its release history is entirely reactive: five updates across five years, each triggered by a CRAN policy change, an upstream package removal, or a bug someone reported. The most recent is an Rd cross-reference format patch plus a maintainer email change.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is stable and lightly staffed rather than abandoned — bugs that affect correctness do get fixed, and CRAN deadlines are met. But the 2023 update is the telling one: rather than vendor or replace adephylo when it faced removal, the maintainers disabled two tree-vector methods and marked the loss as hopefully temporary. Two years on, nothing in the feed indicates they came back.
◆ Prediction
The next entry will most likely be another CRAN-compliance patch, on the pattern of four of the last five releases. Whether the Abouheif and sumDD methods ever return is not something these entries give any signal on.
Alternatives to arulesViz and treespace
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 arulesViz or treespace.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
ggmagnify
A single-purpose ggplot2 inset tool, refining the same three arguments.
symengine
An R symbolic-maths binding whose changelog is really the C++ core's release notes.
gtfstools
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
quantities
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
See all arulesViz alternatives → · See all treespace alternatives →
Recent activity from arulesViz and treespace
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agotreespacetreespace patches Rd cross-references for CRAN
- 11mo agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.5.4: partial argument matches, translucent NA color
- 2y agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.5.3 moves docs to roxygen, updates deprecated calls
- 2y agotreespacetreespace disables Abouheif and sumDD as adephylo exits CRAN
- 3y agotreespacetreespace fixes vignette build on NA tree names
- 4y agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.5-1 extends graph and grouped-matrix plots
- 5y agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.5.0 makes ggplot2 the default plotting engine
- 5y agotreespacetreespace fixes dist indexing that broke its tests
- 5y agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.4-0 adds ggplot2 engines, drops plotly_arules and iplots
- 5y agotreespacetreespace corrects tip label handling in transmission distances
- 7y agoarulesVizarulesViz 1.3-3 cleans up the ruleExplorer interface
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between arulesViz and treespace?
Both compete on the same themes — maintenance-mode — within Analytics. arulesViz and treespace 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 arulesViz better than treespace?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. arulesViz and treespace 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 arulesViz?
Top arulesViz alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "arulesViz alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/arulesviz-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to treespace?
Top treespace alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "treespace alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/treespace-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.