rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
esquisse vs mlr3tuning
A side-by-side editorial comparison of esquisse and mlr3tuning — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
esquisse vs mlr3tuning: at a glance
What is esquisse?
esquisse's 1.0 turned a point-and-click addin into embeddable Shiny modules.
The visible history covers the 1.0 line only. 1.0.0 is the substantial one: modules for importing data (via datamods) and exporting plots, a `ggplot_output()` / `render_ggplot()` pair, manual colour palettes, aesthetic parameter selection, more export formats including pptx, and typography controls. 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 are corrective — sf object handling, package-sourced data, disabled-panel label controls, and an `output_format` argument on the save modal.
What is mlr3tuning?
mlr3tuning is rebuilding its async machinery under a stable public surface
mlr3tuning provides hyperparameter optimization for the mlr3 ecosystem, and its recent history is dominated by the asynchronous tuning path: archive freezing, callback stages around queue evaluation, and version-locked compatibility with the rush backend. Releases pair a small feature with several fixes and an explicit compatibility line naming the mlr3 or rush version they track. The most recent release drops all workarounds for older rush versions, which suggests that dependency has stabilized enough to require rather than accommodate.
esquisse vs mlr3tuning: editorial side-by-side
esquisse
0.0ANALYTICS
esquisse's 1.0 turned a point-and-click addin into embeddable Shiny modules.
◆ Current state
The visible history covers the 1.0 line only. 1.0.0 is the substantial one: modules for importing data (via datamods) and exporting plots, a `ggplot_output()` / `render_ggplot()` pair, manual colour palettes, aesthetic parameter selection, more export formats including pptx, and typography controls. 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 are corrective — sf object handling, package-sourced data, disabled-panel label controls, and an `output_format` argument on the save modal.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from a self-contained RStudio addin toward a component library other people build with: once plot rendering and export exist as Shiny modules, esquisse's ggplot builder can be dropped inside someone else's app rather than only launched beside RStudio. The two follow-up releases are consolidation on that surface rather than expansion of it.
◆ Prediction
Further work most likely lands on the module API and export coverage, since that is where 1.0.0 put the new surface and where 1.0.2 already returned. The entries do not indicate anything about cadence beyond this line.
mlr3tuning
2.5ANALYTICS
mlr3tuning is rebuilding its async machinery under a stable public surface
◆ Current state
mlr3tuning provides hyperparameter optimization for the mlr3 ecosystem, and its recent history is dominated by the asynchronous tuning path: archive freezing, callback stages around queue evaluation, and version-locked compatibility with the rush backend. Releases pair a small feature with several fixes and an explicit compatibility line naming the mlr3 or rush version they track. The most recent release drops all workarounds for older rush versions, which suggests that dependency has stabilized enough to require rather than accommodate.
◆ Where it's heading
Two things are being tidied at once. The async archive is converging on a consistent data.table representation across batch and async variants, so results are shaped the same regardless of how tuning ran. Separately, the package is becoming a better ecosystem citizen — unioning tuner properties on load instead of overwriting them, removing its callbacks on unload, and raising informative errors from AutoTuner accessors on an untrained model. Both are the marks of a package used as a dependency more than as a destination.
◆ Prediction
With rush pinned to 1.2.0 and the compatibility shims gone, the next release is likely to expose more of the async path through callbacks rather than change the tuning interface.
Alternatives to esquisse and mlr3tuning
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 esquisse or mlr3tuning.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
rstanarm
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
taxa
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
rotl
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
See all esquisse alternatives → · See all mlr3tuning alternatives →
Recent activity from esquisse and mlr3tuning
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 18d agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.6.1 stops clobbering other packages' tuner properties
- 4mo agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.6.0 aligns archive column order across tuning classes
- 8mo agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.5.1 tracks xgboost 3.1.2.1
- 8mo agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.5.0 adds queue evaluation stages to async callbacks
- 1y agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.4.0 unifies logging under a base mlr3 logger
- 1y agomlr3tuningmlr3tuning 1.3.0 adds a frozen async archive and leaner worker storage
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse v1.0.2
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse 1.0.1 fixes sf, package data and label controls
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse 1.0.0 ships embeddable plot and export modules ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between esquisse and mlr3tuning?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. mlr3tuning is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 esquisse better than mlr3tuning?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mlr3tuning is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 esquisse?
Top esquisse alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "esquisse alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/esquisse for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to mlr3tuning?
Top mlr3tuning alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mlr3tuning alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mlr3tuning for the full list with editorial commentary on each.