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Comparison · Analytics
glydraw vs ieegio
A side-by-side editorial comparison of glydraw and ieegio — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
glydraw vs ieegio: at a glance
What is glydraw?
SNFG glycan cartoons stopped being pictures and became ggplot2 geoms, guides and axis labels.
glydraw renders glycan structures as SNFG-standard cartoons, standalone or exported in bulk, and since 0.7.0 as native ggplot2 components: geom_glycan() for observations, geom_node_glycan() for ggraph networks, guide_glycan() for legends, and scale_x_glycan() and scale_y_glycan() for discrete axes. Appearance is configured through a single reusable style object rather than scattered arguments, a consolidation that 0.8.0 made breaking. The colour handling now expects a complete SNFG palette rather than sparse per-monosaccharide overrides.
What is ieegio?
ieegio's first release lands electrode trajectory burning and a WebGL-free surface plot
ieegio handles file I/O and volume manipulation for intracranial EEG and neuroimaging data in R. Only one release is on record, 0.1.0 from May 2026, so there is no cadence to read yet. Its content is a mix of new volume-authoring capability and format-level correctness fixes.
glydraw vs ieegio: editorial side-by-side
glydraw
6.3ANALYTICS
SNFG glycan cartoons stopped being pictures and became ggplot2 geoms, guides and axis labels.
◆ Current state
glydraw renders glycan structures as SNFG-standard cartoons, standalone or exported in bulk, and since 0.7.0 as native ggplot2 components: geom_glycan() for observations, geom_node_glycan() for ggraph networks, guide_glycan() for legends, and scale_x_glycan() and scale_y_glycan() for discrete axes. Appearance is configured through a single reusable style object rather than scattered arguments, a consolidation that 0.8.0 made breaking. The colour handling now expects a complete SNFG palette rather than sparse per-monosaccharide overrides.
◆ Where it's heading
The first half of this record is geometry correctness, fixing branch spacing, overlapping linkage annotations, core fucose collisions, triangle alignment and nested side-chain layout, because a cartoon that draws the wrong topology is worse than no cartoon. Once the drawing was trustworthy the package moved outward into ggplot2 and then inward again to consolidate its own API, dropping the glyexp dependency, removing positional argument support, and folding rendering options into style_glydraw(). Each of the last several releases has been explicitly breaking, which is a maintainer using a pre-1.0 window deliberately.
◆ Prediction
With the style object established and the ggplot2 surface in place, the remaining explicit arguments, show_linkage and orient, are the visible inconsistency and may follow the others into the style. Sibling packages adopt each change within days, as glyenzy did with the new orientation values, so expect the next breaking change to propagate the same way.
ieegio
0.0ANALYTICS
ieegio's first release lands electrode trajectory burning and a WebGL-free surface plot
◆ Current state
ieegio handles file I/O and volume manipulation for intracranial EEG and neuroimaging data in R. Only one release is on record, 0.1.0 from May 2026, so there is no cadence to read yet. Its content is a mix of new volume-authoring capability and format-level correctness fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The release points at two audiences at once: burn_curve() writes electrode trajectories — depth/sEEG leads, DBS shafts — into a volume from start and end positions in native RAS coordinates, with a merge mode so trajectories compost onto an existing volume rather than overwriting it. Separately, a base R graphics plot method for surfaces provides a path for environments without WebGL, where the default r3js renderer cannot run. Format work covers BCI2000 and BrainVision channel lookup by label and a quaternion handedness fix aligning with FreeSurfer conventions.
◆ Prediction
A single release gives no basis for predicting cadence. The FreeSurfer alignment and multi-format channel handling suggest interoperability with established neuroimaging toolchains is the near-term priority.
Alternatives to glydraw and ieegio
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 glydraw or ieegio.
spsurvey
spsurvey has spent four years consolidating after its 5.0.0 rewrite rather than adding to it
StreamCatTools
StreamCatTools is quietly moving off web services and onto cloud-native GeoParquet
reproducible
reproducible added a windowed read path so remote GeoTiffs never fully download
qcTAF
qcTAF is building an automated checklist for reproducible fisheries assessments, one criterion at a time
rpymat
After three dormant years, rpymat returned to fix the OpenMP crash that breaks R and conda together
See all glydraw alternatives → · See all ieegio alternatives →
Recent activity from glydraw and ieegio
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agoglydrawRendering options consolidated into a single style object
- 22d agoglydrawGlycan cartoons become ggplot2 geoms, legends and axis labels ⚡
- 1mo agoglydrawNested side-chain layout preserves residue order and linkage labels
- 1mo agoglydrawFucose triangle geometry aligned to rectangle node bounds
- 1mo agoglydrawCustom colours, fucose orientation and export scaling; glyexp dependency dropped
- 1mo agoglydrawSwitches to SNFG standard colours
- 2mo agoieegioburn_curve() writes electrode trajectories into volumes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between glydraw and ieegio?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. glydraw is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 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 glydraw better than ieegio?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. glydraw is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 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 glydraw?
Top glydraw alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "glydraw alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/glydraw for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ieegio?
Top ieegio alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ieegio alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ieegio for the full list with editorial commentary on each.