STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
gghighlight vs healthyR.ts
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gghighlight and healthyR.ts — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
gghighlight vs healthyR.ts: at a glance
What is gghighlight?
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
gghighlight adds one verb to ggplot2: highlight the series matching a predicate and grey out the rest, with unhighlighted_params controlling how the shadowed layer renders and calculate_per_facet deciding whether the predicate evaluates within facets. The API settled at 0.2.0; the 0.5.0 release supports ggplot2 v4.0 including its ink and paper theme elements, and finally deletes gghighlight_point() and gghighlight_line().
What is healthyR.ts?
healthyR.ts keeps adding time-series helpers, then quietly breaks the old ones to modernise them.
A time-series companion in the healthyverse family, shipping helper functions in batches: growth-rate vectors, an ADF test and auto_stationarize() in 0.2.11, then five log and differencing transforms in 0.3.0, and a random-walk plot in 0.3.2. Alongside the additions runs a steady stream of breaking cleanups — invisible returns dropped, R 4.1 required for the native pipe, and ts_ma_plot() refactored onto ggplot2 facets with its xts output removed and its return value cut from six items to two.
gghighlight vs healthyR.ts: editorial side-by-side
gghighlight
0.0ANALYTICS
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
◆ Current state
gghighlight adds one verb to ggplot2: highlight the series matching a predicate and grey out the rest, with unhighlighted_params controlling how the shadowed layer renders and calculate_per_facet deciding whether the predicate evaluates within facets. The API settled at 0.2.0; the 0.5.0 release supports ggplot2 v4.0 including its ink and paper theme elements, and finally deletes gghighlight_point() and gghighlight_line().
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the history. One is a slow deprecation, from soft-deprecating the geom-specific functions at 0.1.0, to defunct at 0.3.0, to removed at 0.5.0 — a five-year removal cycle. The other is compatibility work: purrr 1.0.0, dplyr's across() deprecation, ggplot2 3.4.0, then 4.0. Genuine feature additions are rare and small, with line_label_type at 0.4.0 the last one. Note that 0.3.2's notes restate 0.3.1's n() item, so adjacent tags here overlap rather than each describing distinct work.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely absorbs further ggplot2 4.x changes, given that is what triggered the last three. Nothing in the entries points to a new highlighting capability.
healthyR.ts
0.0ANALYTICS
healthyR.ts keeps adding time-series helpers, then quietly breaks the old ones to modernise them.
◆ Current state
A time-series companion in the healthyverse family, shipping helper functions in batches: growth-rate vectors, an ADF test and auto_stationarize() in 0.2.11, then five log and differencing transforms in 0.3.0, and a random-walk plot in 0.3.2. Alongside the additions runs a steady stream of breaking cleanups — invisible returns dropped, R 4.1 required for the native pipe, and ts_ma_plot() refactored onto ggplot2 facets with its xts output removed and its return value cut from six items to two.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads, both consistent. The functional one is coverage of the stationarity workflow — transform, test, auto-stationarize, plot — assembled function by function rather than as a single API. The structural one is convergence on ggplot2 and tidy conventions, retiring xts objects and multi-object return lists as it goes. The package is not afraid to break return shapes to get there, so upgrades are not drop-in.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining functions that still return xts objects or bundled lists to get the same ggplot2-only treatment, since ts_ma_plot() was refactored on exactly that rationale.
Alternatives to gghighlight and healthyR.ts
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 gghighlight or healthyR.ts.
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.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
eiaapi
A thin EIA energy-data client whose whole story is making bulk queries survive the API's limits.
See all gghighlight alternatives → · See all healthyR.ts alternatives →
Recent activity from gghighlight and healthyR.ts
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agohealthyR.tsRandom walk plot added; ts_ma_plot drops xts for ggplot2 facets
- 1y agogghighlightggplot2 v4.0 support; geom-specific functions removed
- 1y agohealthyR.tsInvisible returns dropped; random walk and vva plot fixes
- 2y agogghighlightTest expectations updated for upcoming ggplot2
- 2y agohealthyR.tsFive log and differencing transform utilities added
- 2y agohealthyR.tsStationarity testing and auto_stationarize added
- 2y agohealthyR.tsSingle example fix
- 3y agohealthyR.tsBoilerplate fitting uses show_best directly
- 3y agogghighlightline_label_type adds geomtextpath and second-axis labelling
- 4y agogghighlightDeprecated dplyr::across() usage removed
- 5y agogghighlightExplicit NULL in unhighlighted_params preserved; aesthetic name clash fixed
- 5y agogghighlightDiscrete-scale labels and n() predicates
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gghighlight and healthyR.ts?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Analytics. gghighlight and healthyR.ts 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 gghighlight better than healthyR.ts?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gghighlight and healthyR.ts 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 gghighlight?
Top gghighlight alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gghighlight alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gghighlight for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to healthyR.ts?
Top healthyR.ts alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "healthyR.ts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/healthyr-ts for the full list with editorial commentary on each.