OpenHouse
OpenHouse starts adding per-column defaults while still closing silent-failure holes.
Comparison · Analytics
broom.helpers vs ggquiver
A side-by-side editorial comparison of broom.helpers and ggquiver — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
broom.helpers vs ggquiver: at a glance
What is broom.helpers?
After eleven quiet months, the tidier under gtsummary is back to absorbing model classes.
broom.helpers standardises the output of regression models so downstream packages can render them, and its release notes read as a running list of newly supported model classes. Version 1.23.0 ends an eleven-month silence — the longest gap in the visible history — with support for multi-state Cox models through an experimental tidy_coxphms(), plus a coefficient-type helper for brmsfit. The selector-removal arc that ran from 1.17.0 through 1.22.0 is finished, leaving the package narrowed to pure translation work.
What is ggquiver?
ggquiver is awake again, fixing arrow scaling that quietly misread irregular data.
A small ggplot2 extension for quiver and vector-field plots. The 0.3.x line in late 2021 made arrows behave outside plain Cartesian coordinates; after a four-year gap, 0.4.0 made them honour scale transformations and exposed grid::arrow() styling. 0.5.0 continues in correctness: automatic vecsize grid detection no longer rescales arrows wrongly on irregularly spaced data like GPS coordinates, an undetectable grid warns rather than errors, and legend keys now show an arrowhead.
broom.helpers vs ggquiver: editorial side-by-side
broom.helpers
2.5ANALYTICS
After eleven quiet months, the tidier under gtsummary is back to absorbing model classes.
◆ Current state
broom.helpers standardises the output of regression models so downstream packages can render them, and its release notes read as a running list of newly supported model classes. Version 1.23.0 ends an eleven-month silence — the longest gap in the visible history — with support for multi-state Cox models through an experimental tidy_coxphms(), plus a coefficient-type helper for brmsfit. The selector-removal arc that ran from 1.17.0 through 1.22.0 is finished, leaving the package narrowed to pure translation work.
◆ Where it's heading
The accretive arc is intact but slower than the release list alone suggests: five releases landed between January and September 2025, then nothing until this week. What resumed is the same pattern — one or two model classes per release, shipped as experimental tidiers first (coxphms here, svy_vglm in 1.21.0, vgam in 1.20.0) and hardened later. With the dot-prefixed selectors removed and the marginal-means tidiers deprecated, the package has stopped shedding scope and is back to only adding it. Whether cadence returns to 2025 levels or this is an isolated maintenance release is not readable from these entries.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely promotes tidy_coxphms() out of experimental status or absorbs another survival-family or Bayesian model class, following the pattern of the last six. The entries give no signal on whether the eleven-month gap was a pause or a new baseline.
ggquiver
2.5ANALYTICS
ggquiver is awake again, fixing arrow scaling that quietly misread irregular data.
◆ Current state
A small ggplot2 extension for quiver and vector-field plots. The 0.3.x line in late 2021 made arrows behave outside plain Cartesian coordinates; after a four-year gap, 0.4.0 made them honour scale transformations and exposed grid::arrow() styling. 0.5.0 continues in correctness: automatic vecsize grid detection no longer rescales arrows wrongly on irregularly spaced data like GPS coordinates, an undetectable grid warns rather than errors, and legend keys now show an arrowhead.
◆ Where it's heading
The consistent theme across both eras is deferring to ggplot2 rather than drawing on top of it — coordinate systems first, then scale transformations, then arrow styling handed to grid, and now the automatic sizing heuristic itself. The two 0.4.0/0.5.0 releases inside seven months suggest the four-year gap was dormancy rather than abandonment, and the work has shifted from integration gaps to the package's own inference: 0.5.0 is the first release to treat automatic grid detection as something that can be wrong rather than merely absent. The changelog remains entirely correctness and integration; there is still no sign of new plot types.
◆ Prediction
The entries support a narrow read: further releases will likely keep hardening vecsize inference and closing ggplot2 integration gaps as users report them. Two releases in seven months hint the cadence has resumed, but one gap of four years makes that weak evidence.
Alternatives to broom.helpers and ggquiver
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 broom.helpers or ggquiver.
Distributions.jl
Julia's distribution library keeps filing down the edges where sampling meets array types
Power BI
Power BI's monthly grind: authoring defaults, DAX documentation, and mobile finally catching up.
vecvec
A lazy vector container keeps closing the gaps where it quietly materialised anyway.
haze
Mesh interpolation drops its custom fork dependency and sheds weight.
scimesh
A mesh renderer grows a scene graph and an exit route into glTF.
See all broom.helpers alternatives → · See all ggquiver alternatives →
Recent activity from broom.helpers and ggquiver
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11h agobroom.helpersMulti-state Cox models get an experimental tidier
- 1d agoggquiverArrow scaling fixed for irregular grids; legend keys gain arrowheads
- 6mo agoggquiverArrows respect scale transformations and grid arrow styling
- 11mo agobroom.helpersQuantile regression support lands as legacy selectors are removed
- 1y agobroom.helpersExperimental tidier for survey-weighted VGAM models
- 1y agobroom.helpersNew grouping controls for tidied model results
- 1y agobroom.helpersMarginal means tidier hard deprecated
- 1y agobroom.helpersInstrumental variable support for fixest models
- 4y agoggquiverArrow scaling and centered-arrow angle fixes
- 4y agoggquiverFix for resized vectors via vecsize
- 4y agoggquiverNon-Cartesian coordinates and ggmap backgrounds supported
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between broom.helpers and ggquiver?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. broom.helpers and ggquiver are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, 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 broom.helpers better than ggquiver?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. broom.helpers and ggquiver are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, 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 broom.helpers?
Top broom.helpers alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "broom.helpers alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/broom-helpers for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggquiver?
Top ggquiver alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggquiver alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggquiver for the full list with editorial commentary on each.