rollupTree
The recursive-computation engine under massProps grows the accessors its consumer needed
Comparison · Infra & APIs
GeoThinneR vs ggpointless
A side-by-side editorial comparison of GeoThinneR and ggpointless — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
GeoThinneR vs ggpointless: at a glance
| Feature | GeoThinneR | ggpointless |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Infra & APIs | Infra & APIs |
| Velocity score | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | spatial-thinning, species-distribution, occurrence-data, breaking-changes | ggplot2-extensions, data-visualization, pictogram-charts, alpha-gradients |
| Last editorial update | 37m ago | 1h ago |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
What is GeoThinneR?
Spatial thinning grows a result object, and the API breaks to make room for it
GeoThinneR removes spatially redundant occurrence records before species distribution modelling. Version 2.0.0 restructured it around a GeoThinned S3 class with print, summary, plot and trial-accessor methods, replacing the bare logical vectors earlier versions returned, and reorganised the methods into three named strategies — distance, grid and precision — with the search algorithm as a separate argument. The two releases since have added a priority system for choosing which of several tied points to drop.
What is ggpointless?
ggpointless keeps adding the ggplot2 layers nobody else bothered to write.
ggpointless is a small ggplot2 extension collecting geoms that sit outside the standard set — Lexis diagrams, Chaikin-smoothed paths, hanging chains, Fourier reconstructions — and it has grown steadily rather than changed shape. The May release is the largest yet: isotype and pictogram bar charts as stacks of discrete unit cells, a family of geoms that fade paths, segments, curves and reference lines along their length, and geom_gridline(), which draws grid lines as a layer on top of the data rather than beneath it.
GeoThinneR vs ggpointless: editorial side-by-side
GeoThinneR
0.0INFRA · APIS
Spatial thinning grows a result object, and the API breaks to make room for it
◆ Current state
GeoThinneR removes spatially redundant occurrence records before species distribution modelling. Version 2.0.0 restructured it around a GeoThinned S3 class with print, summary, plot and trial-accessor methods, replacing the bare logical vectors earlier versions returned, and reorganised the methods into three named strategies — distance, grid and precision — with the search algorithm as a separate argument. The two releases since have added a priority system for choosing which of several tied points to drop.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from a function that returns an answer to a tool that returns something you can interrogate. Multiple thinning trials are first-class — you can ask for the largest, fetch a specific one, summarise one — and the recent work is about making the choice among tied candidates controllable rather than random. Dependency discipline runs alongside: the R-tree method was dropped when its package was not on CRAN, and spatial coverage degrades to NA rather than failing when s2 is missing.
◆ Prediction
The priority mechanism now covers all three strategies and the last release was an overflow fix in the local kd-tree path at large sizes, so scale is where the pressure is. More work on the distance methods at large N is the likelier next step than another strategy.
ggpointless
0.0INFRA · APIS
ggpointless keeps adding the ggplot2 layers nobody else bothered to write.
◆ Current state
ggpointless is a small ggplot2 extension collecting geoms that sit outside the standard set — Lexis diagrams, Chaikin-smoothed paths, hanging chains, Fourier reconstructions — and it has grown steadily rather than changed shape. The May release is the largest yet: isotype and pictogram bar charts as stacks of discrete unit cells, a family of geoms that fade paths, segments, curves and reference lines along their length, and geom_gridline(), which draws grid lines as a layer on top of the data rather than beneath it.
◆ Where it's heading
Two patterns are visible. Ideas get generalized rather than left as one-offs: geom_area_fade() in the previous release established alpha gradients via grid::linearGradient(), and the recent release spreads that treatment across paths, lines, steps, segments, curves and the three reference-line geoms, each with the same fade_direction and alpha_fade_to arguments. And each new geom is expected to survive real plots — the unit charts work under coord_equal, coord_polar, coord_radial, coord_flip and faceting, and geom_gridline reads positions from trained scales and inherits styling from the theme's panel grid. The package also tracks ggplot2 closely, requiring 4.0.0 and using make_constructor() and gg_par() internally, and it dropped its bundled datasets outright rather than maintain stale copies.
◆ Prediction
The fade treatment now covers most path-like geoms but not the area and ribbon family beyond geom_area_fade(), which is where the pattern has room left to run. The unit-cell charts arrive with a label helper and no fill or grouping variants, so those are the plausible next additions.
Alternatives to GeoThinneR and ggpointless
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 GeoThinneR or ggpointless.
massProps
A mass-properties rollup spends a year on documentation and follows its sibling's API
writeAlizer
Six months of releases and not one of them touched the scoring models
samplr
A cognitive-science sampling package ships once, then goes quiet for eighteen months
stochvol
A Bayesian volatility sampler in its maintenance decade, paying for its own speed
midr
A black-box interpreter reaches CRAN, then learns multi-class and survival responses
See all GeoThinneR alternatives → · See all ggpointless alternatives →
Recent activity from GeoThinneR and ggpointless
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agoggpointlessPictogram unit charts, gridline layers and a family of fading geoms
- 5mo agoGeoThinneRInteger overflow in local kd-tree grid assignment
- 5mo agoggpointlessFourier and arch geoms, area fades and glowing points
- 8mo agoGeoThinneRPriority-based tie-breaking across all thinning methods
- 1y agoGeoThinneRGeoThinned result objects and a reorganised method surface ⚡
- 1y agoGeoThinneRR-tree thinning removed with its off-CRAN dependency
- 2y agoggpointlessgeom_catenary() draws a hanging chain
- 3y agoggpointlessgeom_chaikin() adds corner-cutting path smoothing
- 4y agoggpointlessgeom_lexis() and the female_leaders dataset
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between GeoThinneR and ggpointless?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. GeoThinneR and ggpointless 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 GeoThinneR better than ggpointless?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. GeoThinneR and ggpointless 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 GeoThinneR?
Top GeoThinneR alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "GeoThinneR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/geothinner for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggpointless?
Top ggpointless alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggpointless alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggpointless for the full list with editorial commentary on each.