simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
glydraw vs kde1d
A side-by-side editorial comparison of glydraw and kde1d — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
glydraw vs kde1d: 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 kde1d?
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
kde1d estimates univariate densities with local polynomial kernel methods, handling bounded, discrete and now zero-inflated variables through a single type argument, with the numerical work in a header-only C++ library usable outside R. Version 1.1.0 added the zero-inflated discrete-continuous mixture case and shipped a new C++ API as an explicit breaking change; 1.1.1 followed in June with auto-generated notes and no description.
glydraw vs kde1d: 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.
kde1d
0.0ANALYTICS
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
◆ Current state
kde1d estimates univariate densities with local polynomial kernel methods, handling bounded, discrete and now zero-inflated variables through a single type argument, with the numerical work in a header-only C++ library usable outside R. Version 1.1.0 added the zero-inflated discrete-continuous mixture case and shipped a new C++ API as an explicit breaking change; 1.1.1 followed in June with auto-generated notes and no description.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has alternated between performance work and widening the class of data it accepts. The 1.0.0 release was the performance milestone — FFT-based estimation, a better integration algorithm for the p, q and r functions, deterministic jittering replacing randomness, and standalone C++ headers. The 1.1.0 release is the scope milestone, adding a third data type to the two it already handled. Releases come from the same maintainer as svines and cluster on shared dates, so changes in the underlying C++ surface across the vine and density stack tend to ship together.
◆ Prediction
With the C++ API deliberately reworked for standalone use at 1.1.0, further work most plausibly consolidates that interface rather than adding data types. What 1.1.1 actually changed is not readable from its body.
Alternatives to glydraw and kde1d
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 kde1d.
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.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
See all glydraw alternatives → · See all kde1d alternatives →
Recent activity from glydraw and kde1d
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15d agoglydrawRendering options consolidated into a single style object
- 23d 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
- 1y agokde1dkde1d 1.1.1
- 1y agokde1dZero-inflated mixtures and a new standalone C++ API ⚡
- 4y agokde1dBit-wise Boolean operations removed
- 5y agokde1ddkde1d() invisible output fixed
- 5y agokde1dValgrind false positive silenced
- 6y agokde1dqrng dependency dropped; undefined behaviour fixed
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between glydraw and kde1d?
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 kde1d?
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 kde1d?
Top kde1d alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "kde1d alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kde1d for the full list with editorial commentary on each.