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Comparison · Analytics
hydroloom vs TLF-Library
A side-by-side editorial comparison of hydroloom and TLF-Library — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
hydroloom vs TLF-Library: at a glance
What is hydroloom?
USGS puts a type system over its river network toolkit so errors surface at dispatch
hydroloom builds and navigates hydrologic flow networks, carrying functionality migrated out of nhdplusTools. Version 1.2.0 introduces an S3 class hierarchy — hy_topo, hy_leveled, hy_node, hy_flownetwork — assigned automatically by hy() and by producer functions, letting the package validate input at dispatch time and emit guided errors. Outlet detection is now defined explicitly: a row is an outlet when its toid is not in id, with reserved values, NA and implicit absence all accepted.
What is TLF-Library?
The Open Systems Pharmacology plotting layer spent 2025 absorbing a ggplot2 major break.
tlf is the plotting library behind Open Systems Pharmacology's tables, listings and figures — a ggplot2 wrapper producing the PK/PD reporting output the OSP suite generates. Recent work splits into two strands: a feature set adding Lower Limit Of Quantification annotation to time-profile and observed-vs-predicted plots alongside a reworked axis-limits API, and then hot fixes to survive ggplot2 v4.0.0's breaking changes. The axis change is the substantive one, separating cropping the view from filtering the data behind it.
hydroloom vs TLF-Library: editorial side-by-side
hydroloom
0.0ANALYTICS
USGS puts a type system over its river network toolkit so errors surface at dispatch
◆ Current state
hydroloom builds and navigates hydrologic flow networks, carrying functionality migrated out of nhdplusTools. Version 1.2.0 introduces an S3 class hierarchy — hy_topo, hy_leveled, hy_node, hy_flownetwork — assigned automatically by hy() and by producer functions, letting the package validate input at dispatch time and emit guided errors. Outlet detection is now defined explicitly: a row is an outlet when its toid is not in id, with reserved values, NA and implicit absence all accepted.
◆ Where it's heading
The package spent its first releases porting and broadening — non-dendritic network support, divergence routing, subsetting that follows diversions out of a basin — and has now turned to making that surface safe to use. The class hierarchy is the structural expression of that turn: instead of every function re-checking whether a data frame has the columns it needs, the type carries the guarantee. The explicit outlet rule resolves a category of failure where valid networks errored on NA or orphan toid values.
◆ Prediction
The release notes flag that subclass attributes are stripped by standard dplyr operations, which is the kind of rough edge that usually generates follow-up work — expect attribute preservation or restoration helpers next.
TLF-Library
0.0ANALYTICS
The Open Systems Pharmacology plotting layer spent 2025 absorbing a ggplot2 major break.
◆ Current state
tlf is the plotting library behind Open Systems Pharmacology's tables, listings and figures — a ggplot2 wrapper producing the PK/PD reporting output the OSP suite generates. Recent work splits into two strands: a feature set adding Lower Limit Of Quantification annotation to time-profile and observed-vs-predicted plots alongside a reworked axis-limits API, and then hot fixes to survive ggplot2 v4.0.0's breaking changes. The axis change is the substantive one, separating cropping the view from filtering the data behind it.
◆ Where it's heading
The library is maturing into a stable reporting dependency rather than growing new plot types — the newest releases are watermark placement, log-tick safety and upstream compatibility, not new figures. Its exposure is to ggplot2: v4.0.0 required same-day hot fixes, which is the risk profile of a wrapper this thin. Note that this feed's version numbers and publication stamps disagree, with 1.5.170 stamped four months before the lower-numbered 1.5.158, so the release order has to be read from version numbers and the changelog ranges rather than from the feed order.
◆ Prediction
With the ggplot2 v4 fallout patched and the LLOQ work promoted to a stable 1.6 line, the next releases most likely continue as small rendering fixes. Nothing in these entries points to a new plot class in progress.
Alternatives to hydroloom and TLF-Library
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 hydroloom or TLF-Library.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
sdsfun
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
See all hydroloom alternatives → · See all TLF-Library alternatives →
Recent activity from hydroloom and TLF-Library
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agohydroloomhydroloom v1.2.0 ⚡
- 5mo agohydroloomTest tolerances relaxed for CRAN Fedora checks
- 5mo agohydroloomNetwork subsetting and divergence-routed accumulation
- 9mo agoTLF-LibraryWatermark positioning decoupled from plot scales
- 10mo agohydroloomSort and indexing fixes
- 11mo agoTLF-LibraryHot fixes for ggplot2 v4.0.0 breaking changes
- 11mo agoTLF-LibraryLLOQ annotation and axis cropping split from data filtering
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryDev build introducing LLOQ plots and the xAxisLimits rename
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryError-bar cap fixes atop a restated feature list
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryDual-axis plots stop tripping cowplot
- 1y agohydroloomUpmain and downmain navigation for non-dendritic networks
- 2y agohydroloomInitial release completing the nhdplusTools migration
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between hydroloom and TLF-Library?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. hydroloom and TLF-Library 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 hydroloom better than TLF-Library?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. hydroloom and TLF-Library 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 hydroloom?
Top hydroloom alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "hydroloom alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hydroloom for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to TLF-Library?
Top TLF-Library alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "TLF-Library alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tlf-library for the full list with editorial commentary on each.