pr2database
The protist reference database keeps widening past the rRNA gene it was built on.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
ggprism vs qol
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggprism and qol — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggprism vs qol: at a glance
What is ggprism?
A Prism-styled ggplot2 theme in maintenance, now surviving ggplot2 4.0.
ggprism reproduces GraphPad Prism's look inside ggplot2 through themes, axis guides, palettes and p-value brackets, and has been feature-stable since its 2021 CRAN debut. The only release in the recent window is a compatibility pass for ggplot2 v4.0.0. The rest of the visible history is the original 2021 launch sequence.
What is qol?
A SAS-to-R comfort layer that has quietly grown into its own dialect.
qol is a one-maintainer R package aimed at analysts moving from SAS: SAS-shaped verbs (compute., if./else_if., retain_value, do_if blocks), format-driven tabulation through any_table()/summarise_plus(), and styled Excel output as the default destination. Releases land roughly monthly and each one is large. The recent line has shifted from adding verbs to letting conditions be written as parsed character strings, which is the closest the package gets to reproducing SAS syntax inside R.
ggprism vs qol: editorial side-by-side
ggprism
0.0INFRA · APIS
A Prism-styled ggplot2 theme in maintenance, now surviving ggplot2 4.0.
◆ Current state
ggprism reproduces GraphPad Prism's look inside ggplot2 through themes, axis guides, palettes and p-value brackets, and has been feature-stable since its 2021 CRAN debut. The only release in the recent window is a compatibility pass for ggplot2 v4.0.0. The rest of the visible history is the original 2021 launch sequence.
◆ Where it's heading
The package now moves on upstream's clock rather than its own: releases appear when ggplot2 makes a breaking change, and the content is deprecation cleanup and test repair. The 2021 entries show where the capability surface was set, and it has not widened since.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another ggplot2 compatibility pass rather than new guides or palettes.
qol
0.0INFRA · APIS
A SAS-to-R comfort layer that has quietly grown into its own dialect.
◆ Current state
qol is a one-maintainer R package aimed at analysts moving from SAS: SAS-shaped verbs (compute., if./else_if., retain_value, do_if blocks), format-driven tabulation through any_table()/summarise_plus(), and styled Excel output as the default destination. Releases land roughly monthly and each one is large. The recent line has shifted from adding verbs to letting conditions be written as parsed character strings, which is the closest the package gets to reproducing SAS syntax inside R.
◆ Where it's heading
Three threads are visible across these releases. Syntax fidelity is the newest: ifelse_multi() introduced character-string conditions with SAS-style writing, and if./else_if. immediately picked the style up. Tabulation flexibility is the constant — any_table() gains per-variable statistic selection, nested variable combinations in brackets, vector order_by, compute support. The third is ecosystem plumbing the maintainer builds when a gap appears: file I/O in 1.3.0, a console message system, global style options, macro variables, and in 1.3.2 a code_statistics() script scanner. Renames to dodge data.table and dplyr masking recur often enough to be a pattern.
◆ Prediction
The maintainer flagged the new percentile behaviour as a first iteration that only works with few grouping variables, so a performance pass on it is the clearest outstanding item. Beyond that the character-condition syntax has reached three functions in two releases and looks likely to spread to the remaining filter-bearing verbs.
Alternatives to ggprism and qol
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 ggprism or qol.
ggalign
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
Recent activity from ggprism and qol
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoqolifelse_multi() brings SAS-style string conditions to R
- 2mo agoqolcode_statistics() scans script folders; retain_stat() generalizes
- 3mo agoqolcompute. and recode. renamed to dodge dplyr masking
- 4mo agoqolFile I/O, a console message system and do_if filter blocks
- 5mo agoqolRow and column percentage keywords; reworked dummy data
- 6mo agoqolMacro variables, multi-file import/export and text helpers
- 1y agoggprismggplot2 4.0 compatibility fixes for theme_prism()
- 5y agoggprismVignette figure and test fixes ahead of ggplot2 3.4
- 5y agoggprismadd_pvalue() accepts more input column layouts
- 5y agoggprismFirst CRAN submission after the GitHub release
- 5y agoggprismInitial release: Prism themes, guides, palettes, p-value brackets ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggprism and qol?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggprism and qol 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 ggprism better than qol?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggprism and qol 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 ggprism?
Top ggprism alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggprism alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggprism for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to qol?
Top qol alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qol alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qol for the full list with editorial commentary on each.