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Comparison · Infra & APIs
legendry vs nuggets
A side-by-side editorial comparison of legendry and nuggets — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
legendry vs nuggets: at a glance
What is legendry?
A ggplot2 extension quietly turning axes and legends into a place where other plots can live.
legendry extends ggplot2's guide system, letting axes and legends be composed from primitives and keys rather than accepted as given. The most recent release added guides for user-defined keys, upset matrices, arbitrary symbol placement, freeform annotations, and side-plots attached to an axis, plus a run-length-encoded range key and subtitles on custom axes. Between feature releases the package ships small patches, several of them tracking ggplot2's own changes.
What is nuggets?
nuggets keeps compounding on the 2.0 rewrite — more pattern families, lighter install.
nuggets searches for association rules, contrasts and other conditional patterns in the GUHA tradition, with a C++ core behind dig() and an interactive explore() app for reading results. Since the 2.0 rewrite of that core, every release has widened the same three surfaces: more pattern families to mine, more of explore() to inspect them in, and steady performance work underneath. The most recent tag optimises dig() on sparse crisp data with a sparse bit chain and adds clustering characteristics to explore() for association rules.
legendry vs nuggets: editorial side-by-side
legendry
0.0INFRA · APIS
A ggplot2 extension quietly turning axes and legends into a place where other plots can live.
◆ Current state
legendry extends ggplot2's guide system, letting axes and legends be composed from primitives and keys rather than accepted as given. The most recent release added guides for user-defined keys, upset matrices, arbitrary symbol placement, freeform annotations, and side-plots attached to an axis, plus a run-length-encoded range key and subtitles on custom axes. Between feature releases the package ships small patches, several of them tracking ggplot2's own changes.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward treating a guide as a rendering slot rather than a label strip. Dendrogram scales arrived in 0.2.0 with a matching axis guide; the newest release adds side-plots and upset symbol matrices to the same position. Each of these puts real graphical content where an axis used to be, and each one ships with a key function so the composition stays user-controllable. Note that this feed's order is unreliable: 0.2.1 was published eight months after 0.2.4 and minutes before 0.3.0, so neither version numbers nor timestamps indicate release order here.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of pairing each new guide with a matching key function is consistent enough that the next feature release will likely follow it again; the recurring forwards-compatibility patches also suggest another ggplot2-tracking release whenever upstream moves.
nuggets
2.5INFRA · APIS
nuggets keeps compounding on the 2.0 rewrite — more pattern families, lighter install.
◆ Current state
nuggets searches for association rules, contrasts and other conditional patterns in the GUHA tradition, with a C++ core behind dig() and an interactive explore() app for reading results. Since the 2.0 rewrite of that core, every release has widened the same three surfaces: more pattern families to mine, more of explore() to inspect them in, and steady performance work underneath. The most recent tag optimises dig() on sparse crisp data with a sparse bit chain and adds clustering characteristics to explore() for association rules.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces are shaping the package. One is coverage: baseline, complement and paired-baseline contrasts, correlations, tautologies, ancestors and clustering have all been added as first-class dig_ or explore_ surfaces, so the same search engine now answers a widening set of questions. The other is weight — Shiny packages moved from Imports to Suggests, BH and RcppThread dropped, XSIMD updated, parse_condition() rewritten in C++ — which keeps a package with an interactive app from forcing that app's dependencies on every user. Deprecations are handled through lifecycle rather than removed abruptly.
◆ Prediction
Expect the sparse-data optimisation to extend from crisp to fuzzy data, and explore() to keep gaining tabs as each new pattern family lands, on the roughly six-week cadence the 2.2 line has held.
Alternatives to legendry and nuggets
Other Infra & APIs 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 legendry or nuggets.
WPML
WPML made machine translation the default, and its point releases keep chasing WordPress and page builders.
forestploter
A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.
ggInterval
Interval-valued data plotting, spending 2026 making its function names and examples survive CRAN.
rgm
A microbiome network model that got itself un-archived by deleting the dependency that killed it.
contagionchannels
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
See all legendry alternatives → · See all nuggets alternatives →
Recent activity from legendry and nuggets
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 27d agonuggetsSparse bit chain speeds dig(); explore() gains clustering
- 2mo agonuggetspartition() gains .subsets; geom_diamond() layout improved
- 3mo agolegendryFive new guides, including side-plots and upset matrices on axes
- 3mo agolegendryPatch release: guide placement, sizing and gizmo key fixes
- 5mo agonuggetsexplore() covers contrasts and correlations; dig_ancestors() added
- 6mo agonuggetsCritical explore() bug fixed; is_logicalish() added
- 6mo agonuggetsShiny deps moved to Suggests; BH and RcppThread dropped
- 8mo agonuggetscluster_associations() and add_interest() arrive; C++ condition parser
- 11mo agolegendryCRAN fix for undeclared S7 imports
- 11mo agolegendryColourbar sizing fix; sandwich guides gain label suppression
- 1y agolegendryForwards-compatibility patch for an upcoming ggplot2 release
- 1y agolegendryDendrogram scales and axis guide, plus a circle size guide
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between legendry and nuggets?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. nuggets is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 legendry better than nuggets?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. nuggets is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to legendry?
Top legendry alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "legendry alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/legendry for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to nuggets?
Top nuggets alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nuggets alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nuggets for the full list with editorial commentary on each.