qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
austraits vs cholera
A side-by-side editorial comparison of austraits and cholera — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
austraits vs cholera: at a glance
What is austraits?
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
austraits is the R access layer for the AusTraits plant trait database, and its release history is almost entirely a record of keeping pace with two upstream systems it does not control: the austraits.build data releases and the Zenodo archive that hosts them. The most recent release adds a version-dispatch layer so the same package can read both v4.x and v5.0.0 data. Three of the four visible tags were backfilled to GitHub within 23 minutes of each other, so version order and publication order do not agree.
What is cholera?
John Snow's 1854 cholera map is being rebuilt on real geographic coordinates.
cholera packages the Broad Street cholera outbreak data with tools to recompute pump neighbourhoods by Voronoi and walking distance. The last two releases carried the dataset from Snow's original plate coordinates onto georeferenced longitude and latitude, exposed through a latlong = TRUE argument on most functions. Function naming and plotting APIs are being tidied at the same pace.
austraits vs cholera: editorial side-by-side
austraits
0.0ANALYTICS
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
◆ Current state
austraits is the R access layer for the AusTraits plant trait database, and its release history is almost entirely a record of keeping pace with two upstream systems it does not control: the austraits.build data releases and the Zenodo archive that hosts them. The most recent release adds a version-dispatch layer so the same package can read both v4.x and v5.0.0 data. Three of the four visible tags were backfilled to GitHub within 23 minutes of each other, so version order and publication order do not agree.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is converging on a stable public vocabulary and a versioned internal. Sites became locations across every join, plot and extract function; the extract_ and print family filled out at 1.0.0; and by 2.2.2 the core functions each carry a switch on the detected data version rather than assuming one schema. The visible cost of that is dependency churn — plotting packages moved to Suggests, which the notes admit can leave core functions unable to run.
◆ Prediction
Given that every release so far has been triggered by an upstream austraits.build or Zenodo change, the next one most likely follows the next data release rather than any independent roadmap. The entries do not indicate new analysis capability being planned in the client itself.
cholera
0.0ANALYTICS
John Snow's 1854 cholera map is being rebuilt on real geographic coordinates.
◆ Current state
cholera packages the Broad Street cholera outbreak data with tools to recompute pump neighbourhoods by Voronoi and walking distance. The last two releases carried the dataset from Snow's original plate coordinates onto georeferenced longitude and latitude, exposed through a latlong = TRUE argument on most functions. Function naming and plotting APIs are being tidied at the same pace.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is clear and sustained: convert a historical, self-referential coordinate system into one that interoperates with modern GIS. Each release extends latlong coverage to more datasets — pumps, roads, landmarks, and now the plague pit and map frame — while archiving the older prototypes. Parallelisation and the walking-distance solver were reworked along the way to keep the heavier computations usable.
◆ Prediction
Remaining non-georeferenced pieces and the archived latlong prototypes are the obvious next targets, alongside continued consolidation of the add*()/plot*() function pairs.
Alternatives to austraits and cholera
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 austraits or cholera.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
See all austraits alternatives → · See all cholera alternatives →
Recent activity from austraits and cholera
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agocholeraGeoreferences the plague pit and road segments
- 1y agocholeraLongitude and latitude support across nearly all data and functions ⚡
- 2y agoaustraitsSupport for AusTraits 5.0.0 data and the rebuilt Zenodo API
- 3y agocholeraFirst longitude/latitude prototypes and new distance functions
- 3y agoaustraitsextract_taxa, lookup_trait and print methods arrive
- 3y agoaustraitsVignette build and extract_ function polish
- 3y agoaustraitssite becomes location across the API; AusTraits 3.0.2+ support
- 4y agocholeraAdds streetNames(); fixes Delaunay and pump-token plotting
- 5y agocholeraIsochrone helpers, weather data and Voronoi location options
- 6y agocholeraParallel computation support on Windows
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between austraits and cholera?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. austraits and cholera 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 austraits better than cholera?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. austraits and cholera 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 austraits?
Top austraits alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "austraits alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/austraits-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to cholera?
Top cholera alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cholera alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cholera-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.