RBesT
RBesT is teaching its Bayesian decision rules to answer two-sided questions.
Comparison · Analytics
maplegend vs taxizedb
A side-by-side editorial comparison of maplegend and taxizedb — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
maplegend vs taxizedb: 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 taxizedb?
Stopped trusting the cloud to prepare its taxonomic databases and does the conversion locally.
taxizedb queries taxonomic databases locally rather than through rate-limited web APIs, which is what makes it usable for millions of name lookups. Version 0.2.0 established the current design: every source stored as SQLite, no credentials or ports needed, plus name-to-ID mapping functions and ports of the core taxize verbs. The most recent release changes how those databases arrive — instead of downloading a preprocessed SQLite file from the cloud, db_download_*() now fetches raw data and converts it locally for every source, because the cloud path kept breaking.
maplegend vs taxizedb: 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.
taxizedb
0.0ANALYTICS
Stopped trusting the cloud to prepare its taxonomic databases and does the conversion locally.
◆ Current state
taxizedb queries taxonomic databases locally rather than through rate-limited web APIs, which is what makes it usable for millions of name lookups. Version 0.2.0 established the current design: every source stored as SQLite, no credentials or ports needed, plus name-to-ID mapping functions and ports of the core taxize verbs. The most recent release changes how those databases arrive — instead of downloading a preprocessed SQLite file from the cloud, db_download_*() now fetches raw data and converts it locally for every source, because the cloud path kept breaking.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is trading convenience for independence. Each release removes another thing that has to be working elsewhere for the package to function: hosted database preparation is gone, and where a provider disappears the package documents it rather than pretending otherwise — db_download_tpl() is now defunct because The Plant List no longer exists, though previously downloaded copies still query fine. Release cadence is slow, with multi-year gaps and a maintainer handover in 2023.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases to track data sources appearing and disappearing rather than adding features, since that has driven every recent change. Local conversion also shifts cost onto users, so build time and memory for the larger sources are the plausible next thing to need attention.
Alternatives to maplegend and taxizedb
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 taxizedb.
graphicalMCP
graphicalMCP is a narrow statistical tool being hardened rather than grown.
rtflite
rtflite stopped being an RTF writer and became the conversion layer for clinical table output.
git2rdata
git2rdata keeps sharpening one idea: a data frame that produces a readable git diff.
osmextract
osmextract stopped throwing your OpenStreetMap downloads away at the end of every session.
nanoparquet
nanoparquet is chasing byte-level agreement with the Java and Rust Parquet readers, not feature count.
See all maplegend alternatives → · See all taxizedb alternatives →
Recent activity from maplegend and taxizedb
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
- 7mo agomaplegendPackage-wide refactor for non-unity aspect ratios, histogram legends
- 7mo agomaplegendSingle-modality legends allowed for typo, symb and prop_line
- 9mo agotaxizedbDatabases now built locally from raw data, not the cloud
- 1y agomaplegendAlpha transparency and redraw on device resize
- 1y agomaplegendOffset and symbol sizing aligned with mapsf
- 3y agotaxizedbPatch release for a maintainer change
- 5y agotaxizedbtaxa_at() retrieves ancestors at a named rank
- 5y agotaxizedbFixes failing tests
- 6y agotaxizedbSQLite everywhere, three new sources, taxize verbs ported ⚡
- 9y agotaxizedbTracks the dplyr split that introduced dbplyr
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between maplegend and taxizedb?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. maplegend and taxizedb 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 taxizedb?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. maplegend and taxizedb 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 taxizedb?
Top taxizedb alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "taxizedb alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/taxizedb for the full list with editorial commentary on each.