STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
gghighlight vs regfusionr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gghighlight and regfusionr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
gghighlight vs regfusionr: 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 regfusionr?
Registration fusion mapping goes bidirectional, and a vertex-indexing bug that silently returned wrong coordinates is fixed
regfusionr maps coordinates between volumetric brain templates (MNI152, Colin27) and the fsaverage surface. After four dormant years it returned in July 2026 with a release that fixes a coordinate-indexing bug, unblocks a previously disabled function, and completes the template-by-method matrix so all four combinations answer point queries. It also breaks compatibility by switching to the standard FREESURFER_HOME environment variable.
gghighlight vs regfusionr: 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.
regfusionr
3.8ANALYTICS
Registration fusion mapping goes bidirectional, and a vertex-indexing bug that silently returned wrong coordinates is fixed
◆ Current state
regfusionr maps coordinates between volumetric brain templates (MNI152, Colin27) and the fsaverage surface. After four dormant years it returned in July 2026 with a release that fixes a coordinate-indexing bug, unblocks a previously disabled function, and completes the template-by-method matrix so all four combinations answer point queries. It also breaks compatibility by switching to the standard FREESURFER_HOME environment variable.
◆ Where it's heading
The package moved from a partial implementation to a complete one in a single release. Before this, vol_coords_to_fsaverage returned coordinates indexed by query position rather than by vertex index — results that looked plausible and were wrong — and fsaverage_to_vol was guarded behind a stop(). Both are now resolved, and the new Colin27 and MNI152 convenience functions make the mapping bidirectional. The sibling package haze shipped a maintenance release 56 minutes later, marking this as a coordinated sweep across the maintainer's neuroimaging stack.
◆ Prediction
With the four template-by-method combinations closed and the coordinate bug fixed, the next release is more likely to be CRAN-adjacent packaging or documentation than new mapping capability.
Alternatives to gghighlight and regfusionr
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 regfusionr.
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 regfusionr alternatives →
Recent activity from gghighlight and regfusionr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 18d agoregfusionrVersion 0.3.0 -- vol_to_fsaverage, many convenience functions and fixes ⚡
- 1y agogghighlightggplot2 v4.0 support; geom-specific functions removed
- 2y agogghighlightTest expectations updated for upcoming ggplot2
- 3y agogghighlightline_label_type adds geomtextpath and second-axis labelling
- 4y agogghighlightDeprecated dplyr::across() usage removed
- 4y agoregfusionrv0.2.0 -- surface to volume data projection
- 4y agoregfusionrv0.1.0: Initial release
- 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 regfusionr?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. regfusionr is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 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 gghighlight better than regfusionr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. regfusionr is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 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 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 regfusionr?
Top regfusionr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "regfusionr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/regfusionr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.