constants
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Comparison · Analytics
dggridR vs qqman
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dggridR and qqman — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dggridR vs qqman: at a glance
What is dggridR?
A discrete global grid generator grew cell traversal and became a usable spatial index.
dggridR builds discrete global grids — icosahedral tessellations of the Earth into equal-area hexagonal or triangular cells — by wrapping the DGGRID C++ engine. The 4.1.0 release adds dgneighbors, dgchildren and dgparent for moving between adjacent cells and across resolutions, plus dgpoints_to_cells and dgbin_points for mapping and aggregating point data into cells. New aperture 7 and mixed-aperture ISEA43H grid types arrive alongside them.
What is qqman?
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
qqman does two things: manhattan() and qq() plots for genome-wide association study results. Its six visible releases run from 2014 to a single 2017 packaging fix, and the last release with any user-facing change shipped in 2015. The archive is non-monotonic — a 0.0.0 tag published after 0.1.1 archives the pre-package standalone script — so version order and publication order disagree.
dggridR vs qqman: editorial side-by-side
dggridR
0.0ANALYTICS
A discrete global grid generator grew cell traversal and became a usable spatial index.
◆ Current state
dggridR builds discrete global grids — icosahedral tessellations of the Earth into equal-area hexagonal or triangular cells — by wrapping the DGGRID C++ engine. The 4.1.0 release adds dgneighbors, dgchildren and dgparent for moving between adjacent cells and across resolutions, plus dgpoints_to_cells and dgbin_points for mapping and aggregating point data into cells. New aperture 7 and mixed-aperture ISEA43H grid types arrive alongside them.
◆ Where it's heading
The package changed hands in effect as well as in code: the 4.0.0 engine update to DGGRID v9.0b and the first real test suite were contributed by Sebastian Krantz, who also maintains the upstream engine fork, and 4.1.0's feature burst followed two weeks later. The direction of that burst is unmistakable — away from generating grids for plotting and toward using them as an indexing structure that point data gets binned into and navigated through.
◆ Prediction
Expect the cell hierarchy functions to extend to non-hexagonal apertures and multi-level traversal, closing the remaining gaps against established global indexing systems.
qqman
0.0ANALYTICS
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
◆ Current state
qqman does two things: manhattan() and qq() plots for genome-wide association study results. Its six visible releases run from 2014 to a single 2017 packaging fix, and the last release with any user-facing change shipped in 2015. The archive is non-monotonic — a 0.0.0 tag published after 0.1.1 archives the pre-package standalone script — so version order and publication order disagree.
◆ Where it's heading
The real development window was 2014 to 2015. The 0.1.2 release did the substantive work, replacing the assumption that SNPs are evenly distributed across chromosomes and handing users control of axis limits, labels and log transformation; 0.1.3 then added annotation by p-value threshold and top-SNP-per-chromosome. After that the package stops. Notably, the archival 0.0.0 entry records that the original script had confidence intervals on QQ plots and richer highlighting than the released package ever regained.
◆ Prediction
With one packaging fix in the last decade, these entries support no prediction of further releases. The package reads as complete for its narrow purpose rather than abandoned mid-arc.
Alternatives to dggridR and qqman
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 dggridR or qqman.
austraits
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
See all dggridR alternatives → · See all qqman alternatives →
Recent activity from dggridR and qqman
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agodggridRCell neighbors, parents and children make the grid navigable ⚡
- 3mo agodggridRBundled DGGRID engine updated to v9.0b with a test suite
- 3mo agodggridRMaster merged into development ahead of the 4.0 work
- 9y agoqqmanREADME image path fix for pandoc
- 11y agoqqmanAnnotate SNPs by p-value threshold or per-chromosome top hit
- 11y agoqqmanChromosome ticks stop assuming even SNP spacing; axis control opens up
- 12y agoqqmanArchival tag for the pre-package standalone script
- 12y agoqqmanVignette touch-up
- 12y agoqqmanZenodo archival tag, no code change
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dggridR and qqman?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dggridR and qqman 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 dggridR better than qqman?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dggridR and qqman 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 dggridR?
Top dggridR alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dggridR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dggridr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to qqman?
Top qqman alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qqman alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qqman-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.