STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
delaporte vs glydraw
A side-by-side editorial comparison of delaporte and glydraw — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
delaporte vs glydraw: at a glance
What is delaporte?
A Fortran-backed Delaporte distribution package where every release is compiler and CRAN weather.
Delaporte supplies the density, distribution, quantile and random-generation functions for the Delaporte distribution — a Poisson-negative-binomial convolution used for overdispersed count data — implemented in Fortran and called through C. The only user-facing addition in the visible history is explicit OpenMP thread control via getDelapThreads() and setDelapThreads() at 8.2.0.
What is glydraw?
SNFG glycan cartoons stopped being pictures and became ggplot2 geoms, guides and axis labels.
glydraw renders glycan structures as SNFG-standard cartoons, standalone or exported in bulk, and since 0.7.0 as native ggplot2 components: geom_glycan() for observations, geom_node_glycan() for ggraph networks, guide_glycan() for legends, and scale_x_glycan() and scale_y_glycan() for discrete axes. Appearance is configured through a single reusable style object rather than scattered arguments, a consolidation that 0.8.0 made breaking. The colour handling now expects a complete SNFG palette rather than sparse per-monosaccharide overrides.
delaporte vs glydraw: editorial side-by-side
delaporte
0.0ANALYTICS
A Fortran-backed Delaporte distribution package where every release is compiler and CRAN weather.
◆ Current state
Delaporte supplies the density, distribution, quantile and random-generation functions for the Delaporte distribution — a Poisson-negative-binomial convolution used for overdispersed count data — implemented in Fortran and called through C. The only user-facing addition in the visible history is explicit OpenMP thread control via getDelapThreads() and setDelapThreads() at 8.2.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The maintenance burden here is portability, not statistics. Recent entries track a Fortran suffix change for Intel compiler compatibility, architecture-specific test tolerances, type-safety corrections on values crossing the C-to-Fortran boundary, and a thread-count variable relocated from R options to an environment variable to follow an upstream R commit. The distribution functions themselves are settled; what changes is how the compiled code is built and checked across CRAN's platform matrix.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to follow another CRAN toolchain or Writing R Extensions policy change, as the last several have. Two of the four visible entries carry no notes at all, so this feed will keep understating what actually shipped.
glydraw
6.3ANALYTICS
SNFG glycan cartoons stopped being pictures and became ggplot2 geoms, guides and axis labels.
◆ Current state
glydraw renders glycan structures as SNFG-standard cartoons, standalone or exported in bulk, and since 0.7.0 as native ggplot2 components: geom_glycan() for observations, geom_node_glycan() for ggraph networks, guide_glycan() for legends, and scale_x_glycan() and scale_y_glycan() for discrete axes. Appearance is configured through a single reusable style object rather than scattered arguments, a consolidation that 0.8.0 made breaking. The colour handling now expects a complete SNFG palette rather than sparse per-monosaccharide overrides.
◆ Where it's heading
The first half of this record is geometry correctness, fixing branch spacing, overlapping linkage annotations, core fucose collisions, triangle alignment and nested side-chain layout, because a cartoon that draws the wrong topology is worse than no cartoon. Once the drawing was trustworthy the package moved outward into ggplot2 and then inward again to consolidate its own API, dropping the glyexp dependency, removing positional argument support, and folding rendering options into style_glydraw(). Each of the last several releases has been explicitly breaking, which is a maintainer using a pre-1.0 window deliberately.
◆ Prediction
With the style object established and the ggplot2 surface in place, the remaining explicit arguments, show_linkage and orient, are the visible inconsistency and may follow the others into the style. Sibling packages adopt each change within days, as glyenzy did with the new orientation values, so expect the next breaking change to propagate the same way.
Alternatives to delaporte and glydraw
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 delaporte or glydraw.
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 delaporte alternatives → · See all glydraw alternatives →
Recent activity from delaporte and glydraw
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15d agoglydrawRendering options consolidated into a single style object
- 23d agoglydrawGlycan cartoons become ggplot2 geoms, legends and axis labels ⚡
- 1mo agoglydrawNested side-chain layout preserves residue order and linkage labels
- 1mo agoglydrawFucose triangle geometry aligned to rectangle node bounds
- 1mo agoglydrawCustom colours, fucose orientation and export scaling; glyexp dependency dropped
- 1mo agoglydrawSwitches to SNFG standard colours
- 1y agodelaporteThread limit moves to an environment variable; Fortran type checks tightened
- 3y agodelaporteExplicit OpenMP thread control functions added
- 3y agodelaporteCRAN release 8.1.1
- 3y agodelaporteCRAN release 8.1.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between delaporte and glydraw?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. glydraw is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 delaporte better than glydraw?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. glydraw is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 delaporte?
Top delaporte alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "delaporte alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/delaporte for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to glydraw?
Top glydraw alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "glydraw alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/glydraw for the full list with editorial commentary on each.