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cholera vs silx

A side-by-side editorial comparison of cholera and silx — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

cholera vs silx: at a glance

Featurecholerasilx
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themeshistorical-epidemiology, geospatial, r-package, reproducible-researchscientific-computing, data-visualization, synchrotron, qt
Last editorial update3d ago2h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

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.

Read the full cholera trajectory →

What is silx?

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

Read the full silx trajectory →

cholera vs silx: editorial side-by-side

C
cholera
ANALYTICS
0.0

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.

S
silx
ANALYTICS
5.0

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

◆ Current state

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

◆ Where it's heading

The cadence has slowed markedly since April, and the content has shifted from structural change to plotting and colormap refinement. That is the expected shape after a binding migration: downstream beamline code needs a stable target, so the project trades feature velocity for a quiet surface. The gap between 3.0.1 in May and 3.1.0 in August is the clearest signal of the deliberate slowdown.

◆ Prediction

Expect further point releases servicing the plotting and fitting widgets rather than another structural change, with feature work continuing to arrive in the 3.1.x minors rather than patches.

Alternatives to cholera and silx

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 cholera or silx.

See all cholera alternatives → · See all silx alternatives →

Recent activity from cholera and silx

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 5h agosilxFitWidget fix for loading a fit function from file
  2. 9d agosilx3.1.0: asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, dark-theme icons
  3. 3mo agosilx3.0.1: silx view fails to disable HDF5 file locking
  4. 3mo agosilx3.0.0: PySide6 becomes the default Qt binding, Python 3.10 required
  5. 3mo agosilx3.0.0rc1: release candidate for the PySide6 migration
  6. 1y agocholeraGeoreferences the plague pit and road segments
  7. 1y agosilx2.2.2: plot axes limits, OpenGL axes and libhdf5 1.14 fixes
  8. 1y agocholeraLongitude and latitude support across nearly all data and functions
  9. 3y agocholeraFirst longitude/latitude prototypes and new distance functions
  10. 4y agocholeraAdds streetNames(); fixes Delaunay and pump-token plotting
  11. 5y agocholeraIsochrone helpers, weather data and Voronoi location options
  12. 6y agocholeraParallel computation support on Windows

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between cholera and silx?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. silx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 cholera better than silx?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. silx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 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.

What are the best alternatives to silx?

Top silx alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "silx alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/silx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.