tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
gigs vs markdown
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gigs and markdown — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
gigs vs markdown: at a glance
What is gigs?
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
gigs implements international newborn and infant growth standards — INTERGROWTH-21st, WHO — converting anthropometric measurements to z-scores and centiles and classifying growth outcomes. The 0.5.0 release rewrote the public API around rOpenSci review feedback; the two releases after it change no code at all, existing purely to get the documentation site building.
What is markdown?
A package that finished, declared itself done, and handed its core function to a successor.
The R markdown package spent 2023 adding real capability — fenced code block attributes, HTML widget rendering, compatibility shims for rmarkdown's document functions. Then 1.13 declared the package feature-complete and maintenance-only, naming litedown as where development continues. Version 2.0 completes that handover: mark(), the package's core function, is now a thin wrapper around litedown::mark(), and users are told to call litedown directly.
gigs vs markdown: editorial side-by-side
gigs
0.0ANALYTICS
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
◆ Current state
gigs implements international newborn and infant growth standards — INTERGROWTH-21st, WHO — converting anthropometric measurements to z-scores and centiles and classifying growth outcomes. The 0.5.0 release rewrote the public API around rOpenSci review feedback; the two releases after it change no code at all, existing purely to get the documentation site building.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has moved from vector-in, vector-out conversion helpers to a data.frame-oriented interface with a single classify_growth() entry point that computes whatever outcomes the supplied columns allow. That is a shift from library to tool — the user describes their data rather than picking the right function. The trailing releases suggest the code is settled and the remaining work is packaging and discoverability.
◆ Prediction
With the API rewrite absorbed and hosting moved to rOpenSci, the next substantive release should add growth standards or outcomes rather than reshape the interface again.
markdown
0.0ANALYTICS
A package that finished, declared itself done, and handed its core function to a successor.
◆ Current state
The R markdown package spent 2023 adding real capability — fenced code block attributes, HTML widget rendering, compatibility shims for rmarkdown's document functions. Then 1.13 declared the package feature-complete and maintenance-only, naming litedown as where development continues. Version 2.0 completes that handover: mark(), the package's core function, is now a thin wrapper around litedown::mark(), and users are told to call litedown directly.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a controlled retirement rather than abandonment. The maintainer closed out the outstanding feature work first, announced the succession explicitly, and only then reduced the package to a compatibility surface. What remains is a stable shim for the installed base while new work happens in a package with a different name and scope.
◆ Prediction
Expect only CRAN-driven fixes here from now on, with any genuinely new rendering capability appearing in litedown instead. The entries state this policy directly, so the main open question is how long the wrapper is kept before deprecation warnings appear.
Alternatives to gigs and markdown
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 gigs or markdown.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all gigs alternatives → · See all markdown alternatives →
Recent activity from gigs and markdown
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agomarkdownmark() becomes a thin wrapper around litedown::mark()
- 1y agogigsDocs and Zenodo archiving
- 1y agogigsDocs-only release; nothing changed internally
- 1y agogigsConversion API rewritten around data frames and classify_growth() ⚡
- 2y agomarkdownPackage declared feature-complete; work moves to litedown ⚡
- 2y agogigsDocumentation fixes for autotest compliance
- 2y agogigsINTERGROWTH-21st fetal standards and input validation
- 2y agomarkdownAdds compatibility shims for rmarkdown's document functions
- 2y agogigsPatch release with documentation update
- 2y agomarkdownFixes verbatim code blocks with language attributes
- 2y agomarkdownFixes raw blocks broken by code-block attribute support
- 2y agomarkdownFenced code blocks gain attributes; HTML widgets render
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gigs and markdown?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. gigs and markdown 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 gigs better than markdown?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gigs and markdown 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 gigs?
Top gigs alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gigs alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gigs for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to markdown?
Top markdown alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "markdown alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/markdown for the full list with editorial commentary on each.