STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
glydraw vs simmer.plot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of glydraw and simmer.plot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
glydraw vs simmer.plot: 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 simmer.plot?
The plotting companion to simmer, shipping only when the simulator or a graphics dependency moves.
simmer.plot renders discrete-event simulation output — S3 plot() methods over get_mon_arrivals(), get_mon_attributes() and get_mon_resources(), plus trajectory diagrams drawn through DiagrammeR. Since 0.1.12 the methods attach to the monitoring data itself rather than the simulation environment, and 0.1.18 finished that migration by deleting the deprecated environment-level methods.
glydraw vs simmer.plot: 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.
simmer.plot
0.0ANALYTICS
The plotting companion to simmer, shipping only when the simulator or a graphics dependency moves.
◆ Current state
simmer.plot renders discrete-event simulation output — S3 plot() methods over get_mon_arrivals(), get_mon_attributes() and get_mon_resources(), plus trajectory diagrams drawn through DiagrammeR. Since 0.1.12 the methods attach to the monitoring data itself rather than the simulation environment, and 0.1.18 finished that migration by deleting the deprecated environment-level methods.
◆ Where it's heading
This package moves when something it depends on moves. Its history is a sequence of parser fixes for new simmer trajectory formats, DiagrammeR and tidyr and dplyr version bumps, and ggplot2 workarounds. The one clear internal decision — plotting monitor output instead of the environment — was made in 2017 and completed six years later. The 2025 release fixes documentation cross-references and nothing else.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely follows a simmer trajectory-format change or a CRAN documentation policy, matching every recent entry. There is no visible feature work in the pipeline.
Alternatives to glydraw and simmer.plot
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 simmer.plot.
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 simmer.plot alternatives →
Recent activity from glydraw and simmer.plot
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 agosimmer.plotDocumentation cross-reference fixes
- 3y agosimmer.plotActivity tags and named rollbacks; deprecated plot methods removed
- 4y agosimmer.plotZero-capacity utilization fixed; usage limits exposed
- 6y agosimmer.plotRollback pointer fix and upstream bug workarounds
- 8y agosimmer.plotResource plot factors keep the supplied order
- 8y agosimmer.plotUpdate for DiagrammeR 1.0.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between glydraw and simmer.plot?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Analytics. 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 simmer.plot?
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 simmer.plot?
Top simmer.plot alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "simmer.plot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/simmer-plot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.