broom.helpers
After eleven quiet months, the tidier under gtsummary is back to absorbing model classes.
Comparison · Analytics
ggquiver vs haze
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggquiver and haze — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggquiver vs haze: at a glance
What is ggquiver?
ggquiver is awake again, fixing arrow scaling that quietly misread irregular data.
A small ggplot2 extension for quiver and vector-field plots. The 0.3.x line in late 2021 made arrows behave outside plain Cartesian coordinates; after a four-year gap, 0.4.0 made them honour scale transformations and exposed grid::arrow() styling. 0.5.0 continues in correctness: automatic vecsize grid detection no longer rescales arrows wrongly on irregularly spaced data like GPS coordinates, an undetectable grid warns rather than errors, and legend keys now show an arrowhead.
What is haze?
Mesh interpolation drops its custom fork dependency and sheds weight.
haze does per-vertex smoothing and interpolation on triangular meshes, aimed at mapping neuroimaging surface data between subjects, with k-d tree lookup and interpolation in C++. After three years dormant it has shipped twice in a month: a modernization pass to get through R CMD check, and now the removal of its dependency on a custom Rvcg build. It has never been on CRAN because of package size.
ggquiver vs haze: editorial side-by-side
ggquiver
2.5ANALYTICS
ggquiver is awake again, fixing arrow scaling that quietly misread irregular data.
◆ Current state
A small ggplot2 extension for quiver and vector-field plots. The 0.3.x line in late 2021 made arrows behave outside plain Cartesian coordinates; after a four-year gap, 0.4.0 made them honour scale transformations and exposed grid::arrow() styling. 0.5.0 continues in correctness: automatic vecsize grid detection no longer rescales arrows wrongly on irregularly spaced data like GPS coordinates, an undetectable grid warns rather than errors, and legend keys now show an arrowhead.
◆ Where it's heading
The consistent theme across both eras is deferring to ggplot2 rather than drawing on top of it — coordinate systems first, then scale transformations, then arrow styling handed to grid, and now the automatic sizing heuristic itself. The two 0.4.0/0.5.0 releases inside seven months suggest the four-year gap was dormancy rather than abandonment, and the work has shifted from integration gaps to the package's own inference: 0.5.0 is the first release to treat automatic grid detection as something that can be wrong rather than merely absent. The changelog remains entirely correctness and integration; there is still no sign of new plot types.
◆ Prediction
The entries support a narrow read: further releases will likely keep hardening vecsize inference and closing ggplot2 integration gaps as users report them. Two releases in seven months hint the cadence has resumed, but one gap of four years makes that weak evidence.
haze
5.0ANALYTICS
Mesh interpolation drops its custom fork dependency and sheds weight.
◆ Current state
haze does per-vertex smoothing and interpolation on triangular meshes, aimed at mapping neuroimaging surface data between subjects, with k-d tree lookup and interpolation in C++. After three years dormant it has shipped twice in a month: a modernization pass to get through R CMD check, and now the removal of its dependency on a custom Rvcg build. It has never been on CRAN because of package size.
◆ Where it's heading
Both recent releases point at the same obstacle. Needing a patched Rvcg meant users could not install from any normal source, and package size is the stated reason CRAN was ruled out at the first release; this release removes the first barrier and starts on the second by deleting unused data files. Nothing has been added to the interpolation surface since 2022.
◆ Prediction
The direction of travel suggests a CRAN attempt once the size problem is solved, though the package has not said so and the earlier note put it ten times over the limit.
Alternatives to ggquiver and haze
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 ggquiver or haze.
OpenHouse
OpenHouse starts adding per-column defaults while still closing silent-failure holes.
Distributions.jl
Julia's distribution library keeps filing down the edges where sampling meets array types
Power BI
Power BI's monthly grind: authoring defaults, DAX documentation, and mobile finally catching up.
vecvec
A lazy vector container keeps closing the gaps where it quietly materialised anyway.
scimesh
A mesh renderer grows a scene graph and an exit route into glTF.
See all ggquiver alternatives → · See all haze alternatives →
Recent activity from ggquiver and haze
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoggquiverArrow scaling fixed for irregular grids; legend keys gain arrowheads
- 1d agohazeVersion 0.4.0 -- Remove dependency on custom Rvcg version
- 22d agohazeVersion 0.3.0 -- Fixes and modernization
- 6mo agoggquiverArrows respect scale transformations and grid arrow styling
- 4y agohazev0.2.0 -- kdtrees
- 4y agohazeInitial release: mesh smoothing and k-d tree interpolation ⚡
- 4y agoggquiverArrow scaling and centered-arrow angle fixes
- 4y agoggquiverFix for resized vectors via vecsize
- 4y agoggquiverNon-Cartesian coordinates and ggmap backgrounds supported
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggquiver and haze?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. haze is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 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 ggquiver better than haze?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. haze is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 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 ggquiver?
Top ggquiver alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggquiver alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggquiver for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to haze?
Top haze alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "haze alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/haze for the full list with editorial commentary on each.