STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
b3gbi vs gghighlight
A side-by-side editorial comparison of b3gbi and gghighlight — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
b3gbi vs gghighlight: at a glance
What is b3gbi?
b3gbi pulled confidence intervals out of its indicator workflow and handed them to dubicube.
b3gbi computes biodiversity indicators from GBIF occurrence cubes for the B-Cubed project, and sits at 0.9.4 in a JOSS review run-up. The 0.9 release decoupled uncertainty from indicator calculation: confidence intervals are no longer produced inline but added afterward with add_ci(), backed by whole-cube bootstrapping from the sibling dubicube package. Everything since has been grid-parsing and compatibility repair around that split.
What is gghighlight?
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
gghighlight adds one verb to ggplot2: highlight the series matching a predicate and grey out the rest, with unhighlighted_params controlling how the shadowed layer renders and calculate_per_facet deciding whether the predicate evaluates within facets. The API settled at 0.2.0; the 0.5.0 release supports ggplot2 v4.0 including its ink and paper theme elements, and finally deletes gghighlight_point() and gghighlight_line().
b3gbi vs gghighlight: editorial side-by-side
b3gbi
2.5ANALYTICS
b3gbi pulled confidence intervals out of its indicator workflow and handed them to dubicube.
◆ Current state
b3gbi computes biodiversity indicators from GBIF occurrence cubes for the B-Cubed project, and sits at 0.9.4 in a JOSS review run-up. The 0.9 release decoupled uncertainty from indicator calculation: confidence intervals are no longer produced inline but added afterward with add_ci(), backed by whole-cube bootstrapping from the sibling dubicube package. Everything since has been grid-parsing and compatibility repair around that split.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces are shaping releases. Internally, the uncertainty split produced an indicator-specific rule book — species-level indicators bootstrap the whole cube, raw counts resample within year, evenness gets a logit transform — and that rule book is where the statistical thinking now lives. Externally, GBIF's taxonomic backbone migration to the Catalogue of Life forced string taxon keys through process_cube() and the plotting paths, while recurring EEA and MGRS grid-code fixes mark coordinate parsing as the least settled area.
◆ Prediction
The 0.9.4 notes are entirely JOSS review items — contributors, examples, tracked datasets — so the next release is most likely a JOSS-accepted 1.0 rather than new indicator work.
gghighlight
0.0ANALYTICS
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
◆ Current state
gghighlight adds one verb to ggplot2: highlight the series matching a predicate and grey out the rest, with unhighlighted_params controlling how the shadowed layer renders and calculate_per_facet deciding whether the predicate evaluates within facets. The API settled at 0.2.0; the 0.5.0 release supports ggplot2 v4.0 including its ink and paper theme elements, and finally deletes gghighlight_point() and gghighlight_line().
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the history. One is a slow deprecation, from soft-deprecating the geom-specific functions at 0.1.0, to defunct at 0.3.0, to removed at 0.5.0 — a five-year removal cycle. The other is compatibility work: purrr 1.0.0, dplyr's across() deprecation, ggplot2 3.4.0, then 4.0. Genuine feature additions are rare and small, with line_label_type at 0.4.0 the last one. Note that 0.3.2's notes restate 0.3.1's n() item, so adjacent tags here overlap rather than each describing distinct work.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely absorbs further ggplot2 4.x changes, given that is what triggered the last three. Nothing in the entries points to a new highlighting capability.
Alternatives to b3gbi and gghighlight
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 b3gbi or gghighlight.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
eiaapi
A thin EIA energy-data client whose whole story is making bulk queries survive the API's limits.
See all b3gbi alternatives → · See all gghighlight alternatives →
Recent activity from b3gbi and gghighlight
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4d agob3gbiJOSS review fixes: contributors, examples, tracked data
- 1mo agob3gbiEEA grid coordinates no longer scaled by resolution
- 1mo agob3gbiadd_ci() no longer crashes on completeness indicators
- 1mo agob3gbiString taxon keys for GBIF's Catalogue of Life backbone
- 1mo agob3gbiUncertainty split out of the indicator workflow into add_ci() ⚡
- 1mo agob3gbiFAIR column mapping doc and Zenodo DOI badge
- 1y agogghighlightggplot2 v4.0 support; geom-specific functions removed
- 2y agogghighlightTest expectations updated for upcoming ggplot2
- 3y agogghighlightline_label_type adds geomtextpath and second-axis labelling
- 4y agogghighlightDeprecated dplyr::across() usage removed
- 5y agogghighlightExplicit NULL in unhighlighted_params preserved; aesthetic name clash fixed
- 5y agogghighlightDiscrete-scale labels and n() predicates
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between b3gbi and gghighlight?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. b3gbi 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.
Is b3gbi better than gghighlight?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. b3gbi 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.
What are the best alternatives to b3gbi?
Top b3gbi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "b3gbi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/b3gbi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to gghighlight?
Top gghighlight alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gghighlight alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gghighlight for the full list with editorial commentary on each.