STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
condformat vs nat.nblast
A side-by-side editorial comparison of condformat and nat.nblast — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
condformat vs nat.nblast: at a glance
What is condformat?
A dormant table-formatting package woken by a 20-PR correctness and coverage sweep
condformat applies conditional formatting rules to R data frames and renders them to HTML, LaTeX, Excel and grob output. After 0.10.1 in 2023 it went quiet for nearly three years. Version 0.11.0 breaks that silence with a single-maintainer sweep of roughly twenty pull requests: CI modernized across R-devel, release and oldrel; lockcells fixed for LaTeX and grob output; a rule_fill_bar() crash at zero width; theme_htmlTable() no longer dropping chained arguments; and a .col pronoun added across all rules.
What is nat.nblast?
The NBLAST neuron-similarity engine is stable code on life support, shipping once every few years.
nat.nblast implements NBLAST, the pairwise neuron-morphology similarity algorithm used across the natverse for matching and clustering traced neurons — nblast(), nhclust() and the scoring-matrix machinery around them. The algorithm and its interface have not changed in a decade of releases; recent work is CRAN compliance and build infrastructure.
condformat vs nat.nblast: editorial side-by-side
condformat
0.0ANALYTICS
A dormant table-formatting package woken by a 20-PR correctness and coverage sweep
◆ Current state
condformat applies conditional formatting rules to R data frames and renders them to HTML, LaTeX, Excel and grob output. After 0.10.1 in 2023 it went quiet for nearly three years. Version 0.11.0 breaks that silence with a single-maintainer sweep of roughly twenty pull requests: CI modernized across R-devel, release and oldrel; lockcells fixed for LaTeX and grob output; a rule_fill_bar() crash at zero width; theme_htmlTable() no longer dropping chained arguments; and a .col pronoun added across all rules.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a maintenance-debt payoff rather than a change of direction. The bulk of 0.11.0 is test coverage — render_gtable, knit_print, theme_grob, render_xlsx and rule_fill_bar all gained tests — which reads as a maintainer establishing a safety net before touching anything further. The .col pronoun and scalar recycling in the text rules are the only real API additions, and both smooth inconsistencies rather than extend the rule vocabulary.
◆ Prediction
With coverage and CI now in place, the next release is more likely to extend rule or output-format support than to continue with fixes, though the three-year gap makes cadence hard to call from these entries alone.
nat.nblast
0.0ANALYTICS
The NBLAST neuron-similarity engine is stable code on life support, shipping once every few years.
◆ Current state
nat.nblast implements NBLAST, the pairwise neuron-morphology similarity algorithm used across the natverse for matching and clustering traced neurons — nblast(), nhclust() and the scoring-matrix machinery around them. The algorithm and its interface have not changed in a decade of releases; recent work is CRAN compliance and build infrastructure.
◆ Where it's heading
The four-year gap between 1.6.6 and 1.6.8 says most of it: this is finished code being kept on CRAN rather than a package under development. The 1.6.8 release fixes Rd cross-references and moves continuous integration to GitHub Actions, with no user-facing change at all. The last release that altered numerical output was 1.6.6 in 2021.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases only when CRAN check policy or a natverse dependency forces one. Nothing in these entries suggests algorithmic work is underway.
Alternatives to condformat and nat.nblast
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 condformat or nat.nblast.
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.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all condformat alternatives → · See all nat.nblast alternatives →
Recent activity from condformat and nat.nblast
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agocondformatEnds a three-year gap with a 20-PR fix and coverage sweep
- 0y agonat.nblastCRAN cross-reference fixes and GitHub Actions setup
- 2y agocondformatDocumentation fixes and internal S3 method registration
- 3y agocondformatcondformat2grob() gains a draw argument for composite figures
- 5y agonat.nblastScale factor retained when normalising scores
- 6y agocondformatDrops the lazyeval API and replaces xlsx with openxlsx
- 7y agocondformatAdds bar, bold and color rules plus grob rendering
- 7y agonat.nblastnhclust accepts score matrices directly
- 7y agonat.nblastR 3.3 compatibility fixes and first vignette
- 8y agocondformatIntroduces the tidy-evaluation API alongside the old one
- 11y agonat.nblastPackage test fixes only
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between condformat and nat.nblast?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. condformat and nat.nblast 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 condformat better than nat.nblast?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. condformat and nat.nblast 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 condformat?
Top condformat alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "condformat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/condformat for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to nat.nblast?
Top nat.nblast alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nat.nblast alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nat-nblast for the full list with editorial commentary on each.