HydroPortailStats
France's national flood statistics, ported out of Fortran and into R.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
geocomplexity vs ggdist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of geocomplexity and ggdist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
geocomplexity vs ggdist: at a glance
What is geocomplexity?
A spatial complexity package that shipped its method, then went quiet
geocomplexity computes geographical complexity from spatial dependence and configuration similarity across both vector and raster data, and uses it to build spatial weight matrices and a complexity-aware geographically weighted regression. That capability arrived complete in the 0.1.0 release of September 2024. The three releases since contain no functional change: a citation file, a dependency trim, one function moved out to a sibling package, and a maintainer surname correction.
What is ggdist?
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
ggdist supplies ggplot2 with a compositional vocabulary for distributions — slabs, intervals, dotplots and the sub-geometries that combine them. The last three years moved it from a drawing library to an estimation library: bounded density estimation with Sheather-Jones bandwidth became the default, weights propagate through every density, interval and point summary, and blurred dotplots render Monte Carlo standard error as visual fuzz. The 2025 release rounds this out with per-geometry thickness subscales and settable global defaults.
geocomplexity vs ggdist: editorial side-by-side
geocomplexity
0.0INFRA · APIS
A spatial complexity package that shipped its method, then went quiet
◆ Current state
geocomplexity computes geographical complexity from spatial dependence and configuration similarity across both vector and raster data, and uses it to build spatial weight matrices and a complexity-aware geographically weighted regression. That capability arrived complete in the 0.1.0 release of September 2024. The three releases since contain no functional change: a citation file, a dependency trim, one function moved out to a sibling package, and a maintainer surname correction.
◆ Where it's heading
The package sits inside Wenbo Lyu's spatial statistics family, where shared functionality migrates into the common sdsfun package rather than being duplicated across dependents. moran_test left geocomplexity for sdsfun in 0.2.0, which is the same consolidation pattern visible across the author's other packages. What remains here is the method-specific surface, and it has not changed in eighteen months.
◆ Prediction
The entries give no signal of planned functional work; on this pattern the next release is as likely to be metadata or another function migration to sdsfun as anything user-visible.
ggdist
0.0INFRA · APIS
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
◆ Current state
ggdist supplies ggplot2 with a compositional vocabulary for distributions — slabs, intervals, dotplots and the sub-geometries that combine them. The last three years moved it from a drawing library to an estimation library: bounded density estimation with Sheather-Jones bandwidth became the default, weights propagate through every density, interval and point summary, and blurred dotplots render Monte Carlo standard error as visual fuzz. The 2025 release rounds this out with per-geometry thickness subscales and settable global defaults.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel and keep converging. One is statistical: pluggable density estimators arrived first, then became the default, then gained weights and quantile histograms. The other is compositional: sub-geometries acquired their own guides, then their own scales, so a slab's thickness axis is now a first-class annotated dimension. Cadence has stretched from twice-yearly to roughly annual, with the recent work tightening existing surface rather than opening new.
◆ Prediction
Subguides gained subscales a release later, so the remaining asymmetry is in the sub-geometry system rather than the statistics; expect the next release to continue that fill-in work.
Alternatives to geocomplexity and ggdist
Other Infra & APIs 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 geocomplexity or ggdist.
bsvarSIGNs
Sign, zero and narrative restrictions brought into the bsvars ecosystem.
estimatr
Fast design-based estimators for experiments, coasting on CRAN patches.
ipaddress
IP address vectors for R that hit 1.0 and then went quiet.
ltertools
A column-key toolkit for stitching decades of ecological field data into one table.
finnts
Microsoft's automated forecasting framework, still mostly a one-maintainer effort.
See all geocomplexity alternatives → · See all ggdist alternatives →
Recent activity from geocomplexity and ggdist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agogeocomplexityMaintainer surname spelling corrected for pinyin compliance
- 1y agoggdistPer-geometry thickness subscales and settable defaults
- 1y agogeocomplexityPackage citation added
- 1y agogeocomplexitymoran_test migrates out to the shared sdsfun package
- 1y agogeocomplexityGeographical complexity measures and complexity-weighted GWR
- 2y agoggdistBlurred dotplots draw Monte Carlo error; weights reach every estimator ⚡
- 2y agoggdistC++ dotplot binning and safer bandwidth fallbacks
- 3y agoggdistBounded density becomes the default; existing charts change ⚡
- 3y agoggdistCategorical distributions, hex layouts, pluggable density estimators
- 4y agoggdistComputed variables shared across sub-geometries
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between geocomplexity and ggdist?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. geocomplexity and ggdist 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 geocomplexity better than ggdist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. geocomplexity and ggdist 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to geocomplexity?
Top geocomplexity alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "geocomplexity alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/geocomplexity for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggdist?
Top ggdist alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggdist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggdist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.