qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
austraits vs inbotheme
A side-by-side editorial comparison of austraits and inbotheme — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
austraits vs inbotheme: 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 inbotheme?
An institutional ggplot2 theme in slow maintenance, tracking upstream deprecations.
INBOtheme supplies ggplot2 themes and colour palettes matching the house style of INBO and the Flemish government. The current release is compatibility work: silencing ggplot2 deprecation warnings, quieting an interactive palette message, and refreshing the shared checklist tooling INBO uses across its packages. The substantive palette work happened two years earlier.
austraits vs inbotheme: 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.
inbotheme
0.0ANALYTICS
An institutional ggplot2 theme in slow maintenance, tracking upstream deprecations.
◆ Current state
INBOtheme supplies ggplot2 themes and colour palettes matching the house style of INBO and the Flemish government. The current release is compatibility work: silencing ggplot2 deprecation warnings, quieting an interactive palette message, and refreshing the shared checklist tooling INBO uses across its packages. The substantive palette work happened two years earlier.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is reactive rather than directional — the package changes when ggplot2 changes or when institutional branding does. The 0.6.0 release reworked palettes and split the documentation; since then the only movement has been keeping that surface valid against upstream deprecations. Note that the feed is not strictly chronological, with 0.5.7 published after 0.5.8.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another ggplot2 compatibility pass; a branding refresh would be the only plausible trigger for anything larger, and nothing in these entries signals one.
Alternatives to austraits and inbotheme
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 inbotheme.
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 inbotheme alternatives →
Recent activity from austraits and inbotheme
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoinbothemeClears ggplot2 deprecation warnings and updates tooling
- 2y agoaustraitsSupport for AusTraits 5.0.0 data and the rebuilt Zenodo API
- 3y agoinbothemePalette overhaul with ordinal and gradient scales
- 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 agoinbothemeRemoves bundled fonts over showtext rendering problems
- 5y agoinbothemeAdds NARA theme; renames objects to snake_case
- 5y agoinbothemetraffic_palette() becomes the default ordinal palette
- 7y agoinbothemeVersion 0.5.5.3
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between austraits and inbotheme?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. austraits and inbotheme 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 inbotheme?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. austraits and inbotheme 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 inbotheme?
Top inbotheme alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "inbotheme alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/inbotheme for the full list with editorial commentary on each.