STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
glydraw vs maths.genealogy
A side-by-side editorial comparison of glydraw and maths.genealogy — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
glydraw vs maths.genealogy: 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 maths.genealogy?
A young Mathematics Genealogy client spending its first four releases satisfying CRAN.
maths.genealogy queries the Mathematics Genealogy Project over a WebSocket connection and renders academic advisor-student trees, with plot_grviz() as the visualisation entry point. The package reached CRAN in early 2025 and its functional surface has barely moved since — max_zoom() for deep trees at 0.1.1 is the only user-facing addition in the visible history.
glydraw vs maths.genealogy: 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.
maths.genealogy
0.0ANALYTICS
A young Mathematics Genealogy client spending its first four releases satisfying CRAN.
◆ Current state
maths.genealogy queries the Mathematics Genealogy Project over a WebSocket connection and renders academic advisor-student trees, with plot_grviz() as the visualisation entry point. The package reached CRAN in early 2025 and its functional surface has barely moved since — max_zoom() for deep trees at 0.1.1 is the only user-facing addition in the visible history.
◆ Where it's heading
Every release after the first is CRAN policy management. Three consecutive entries deal with the same underlying problem: examples that hit a live network resource and therefore fail unpredictably on check machines. The progression from wrapping them in \donttest{} to catching a stray case to rewriting all examples against published API-package guidance shows the maintainer converging on a pattern rather than adding features. That is the normal cost of shipping a network client to CRAN, and it appears to be settling.
◆ Prediction
With the examples problem resolved, the next release is the first plausible opportunity for feature work — likely on the plotting side, given max_zoom() was the sole non-compliance change so far. The entries do not name anything specific in progress.
Alternatives to glydraw and maths.genealogy
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 maths.genealogy.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all glydraw alternatives → · See all maths.genealogy alternatives →
Recent activity from glydraw and maths.genealogy
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 agomaths.genealogyExamples rewritten to CRAN API-package guidance
- 1y agomaths.genealogyRemaining network-dependent example wrapped in donttest
- 1y agomaths.genealogyDESCRIPTION quoting and donttest example wrapping
- 1y agomaths.genealogyplot_grviz() gains max_zoom for deep trees
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between glydraw and maths.genealogy?
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 maths.genealogy?
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 maths.genealogy?
Top maths.genealogy alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "maths.genealogy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/maths-genealogy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.