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Comparison · Analytics
maplegend vs simulist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of maplegend and simulist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
maplegend vs simulist: at a glance
What is maplegend?
The legend engine mapsf spun out, now covering legend types the parent map package can draw.
maplegend draws the legends for base-R thematic maps, extracted from mapsf so both packages could evolve the legend vocabulary independently. It has been catching up to the map types it has to serve: 0.6.0 added choro_point, choro_line, and choro_symb for choropleth legends rendered on circles, lines, and symbols, following the histogram legend type in 0.4.0. Considerable effort has gone into behaving correctly when the plot aspect ratio is not 1, which required refactoring most of the package in 0.4.0 and still produced a proportional-symbol segment sizing fix in 0.6.3.
What is simulist?
simulist stopped simulating clean outbreaks and started simulating the mess real surveillance data arrives in.
simulist generates synthetic line list and contact-tracing data for outbreak analytics as part of the Epiverse-TRACE stack. It reached stable status in 0.6.0 and was published in JOSS alongside 0.7.0 in February 2026. Its distinguishing feature is no longer the epidemic simulation itself but the post-processing layer that degrades the output into realistic data.
maplegend vs simulist: editorial side-by-side
maplegend
0.0ANALYTICS
The legend engine mapsf spun out, now covering legend types the parent map package can draw.
◆ Current state
maplegend draws the legends for base-R thematic maps, extracted from mapsf so both packages could evolve the legend vocabulary independently. It has been catching up to the map types it has to serve: 0.6.0 added choro_point, choro_line, and choro_symb for choropleth legends rendered on circles, lines, and symbols, following the histogram legend type in 0.4.0. Considerable effort has gone into behaving correctly when the plot aspect ratio is not 1, which required refactoring most of the package in 0.4.0 and still produced a proportional-symbol segment sizing fix in 0.6.3.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a support library whose backlog is defined by its caller. Every legend type mapsf can produce needs a matching legend renderer, and the release notes are dominated by spacing, offset, and border details — box_cex for symbol spacing, NA box placement in horizontal choropleth legends, text overflow when no_data is set. The shared vocabulary with mapsf is being maintained deliberately, with val_rnd, val_big, and val_dec propagating through legend types release by release. Version numbering is not monotonic in this feed, with 0.4.0 published seconds after 0.5.0.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining combined map types to acquire matching legends and the val_* formatting arguments to reach the types that still lack them.
simulist
0.0ANALYTICS
simulist stopped simulating clean outbreaks and started simulating the mess real surveillance data arrives in.
◆ Current state
simulist generates synthetic line list and contact-tracing data for outbreak analytics as part of the Epiverse-TRACE stack. It reached stable status in 0.6.0 and was published in JOSS alongside 0.7.0 in February 2026. Its distinguishing feature is no longer the epidemic simulation itself but the post-processing layer that degrades the output into realistic data.
◆ Where it's heading
The scope moved outward in two steps. 0.5.0 added truncate_linelist() and messy_linelist() to produce right-truncated snapshots and data with missingness and inconsistencies; 0.6.0 added censor_linelist() for grouping dates into intervals with a weekend-reporting effect. The simulation core has meanwhile settled — 0.7.0's changes are interface polish: weighted sex sampling and <epiparameter> objects accepted for reporting_delay.
◆ Prediction
Post-processing is where the recent work is, so further realism controls — additional reporting artefacts or interval schemes — are a likelier next step than new epidemic model structures.
Alternatives to maplegend and simulist
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 maplegend or simulist.
nanoparquet
nanoparquet is chasing byte-level agreement with the Java and Rust Parquet readers, not feature count.
poissonreg
poissonreg gave its models away to parsnip and kept the glue — now it just keeps glmnet honest.
S7
S7 has stopped adding surface and started proving it holds up against R itself.
torchvision
R's torchvision is porting PyTorch's vision stack one task at a time — instance segmentation just landed.
datefixR
The messy-date parser rewrote its core in Rust and came out 300x faster.
See all maplegend alternatives → · See all simulist alternatives →
Recent activity from maplegend and simulist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agomaplegendContinuous legend formatting and aspect-ratio segment fix
- 4mo agomaplegendChoropleth legends on points, lines and symbols
- 6mo agosimulistJOSS paper corrections
- 6mo agosimulistWeighted sex sampling and epiparameter objects for reporting delays
- 7mo agomaplegendPackage-wide refactor for non-unity aspect ratios, histogram legends
- 7mo agomaplegendSingle-modality legends allowed for typo, symb and prop_line
- 11mo agosimulistcensor_linelist() adds interval censoring and a weekend effect
- 1y agomaplegendAlpha transparency and redraw on device resize
- 1y agomaplegendOffset and symbol sizing aligned with mapsf
- 1y agosimulistPost-processing arrives: truncated snapshots and deliberately messy line lists ⚡
- 1y agosimulistEvery sim_*() argument gains a default
- 2y agosimulistInfectious period replaces contact interval; time-varying fatality risk added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between maplegend and simulist?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. maplegend and simulist 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 maplegend better than simulist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. maplegend and simulist 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 maplegend?
Top maplegend alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "maplegend alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/maplegend for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to simulist?
Top simulist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "simulist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/simulist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.