simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
gghighlight vs stringx
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gghighlight and stringx — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
gghighlight vs stringx: 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 stringx?
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
stringx reimplements base R's string and date-time functions on top of stringi, aiming for consistent and Unicode-correct behaviour. The visible window holds one behavioural change and five releases that exist because R or stringi moved underneath it. None of the recent notes add capability.
gghighlight vs stringx: 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.
stringx
0.0ANALYTICS
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
◆ Current state
stringx reimplements base R's string and date-time functions on top of stringi, aiming for consistent and Unicode-correct behaviour. The visible window holds one behavioural change and five releases that exist because R or stringi moved underneath it. None of the recent notes add capability.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's shape was settled by 0.2.1 and has not changed since; every release in the past three years is either a check failure fixed or a POSIXxt defect. The one substantive note, 0.2.6, records a behaviour change inherited from stringi rather than chosen here - strptime now fills missing fields from today's midnight. That dependence is the defining fact about the feed.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another compatibility fix timed to an R or stringi update, since four of the six visible releases were exactly that.
Alternatives to gghighlight and stringx
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 stringx.
lavaanExtra
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
healthyR.data
From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
See all gghighlight alternatives → · See all stringx alternatives →
Recent activity from gghighlight and stringx
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agogghighlightggplot2 v4.0 support; geom-specific functions removed
- 1y agostringxPOSIXlt conversion now sets the GMT offset
- 2y agostringxTests repaired after changes in R
- 2y agogghighlightTest expectations updated for upcoming ggplot2
- 2y agostringxstrptime fills missing fields from today's midnight
- 3y agostringxChecks repaired after an R update
- 3y agostringxChecks repaired after an R-devel change
- 3y agogghighlightline_label_type adds geomtextpath and second-axis labelling
- 3y agostringxFailing checks fixed
- 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 stringx?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. gghighlight and stringx 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 stringx?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gghighlight and stringx 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 stringx?
Top stringx alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "stringx alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/stringx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.