metatools
SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
marquee vs pharmaversesdtm
A side-by-side editorial comparison of marquee and pharmaversesdtm — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
marquee vs pharmaversesdtm: at a glance
What is marquee?
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
marquee renders markdown text onto R graphics devices, and backs element_marquee() and geom_marquee() in ggplot2. Development ran in a tight burst through August and September 2025: 1.1.0 added text outlines, a size shortcut and remote PNG/JPEG support, 1.2.0 added border and outline line types and moved underline placement onto font metrics, and 1.2.1 cleaned up the bugs those introduced.
What is pharmaversesdtm?
pharmaversesdtm is the test-data layer every pharmaverse package now builds against.
The package ships example SDTM datasets and has grown one therapeutic area at a time — ophthalmology, oncology response criteria, vaccines, metabolic, neurology, and now lymphoma under Lugano 2014. Sibling packages keep moving their internal test data here, so its release notes double as a record of what the rest of the pharmaverse is building.
marquee vs pharmaversesdtm: editorial side-by-side
marquee
0.0ANALYTICS
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
◆ Current state
marquee renders markdown text onto R graphics devices, and backs element_marquee() and geom_marquee() in ggplot2. Development ran in a tight burst through August and September 2025: 1.1.0 added text outlines, a size shortcut and remote PNG/JPEG support, 1.2.0 added border and outline line types and moved underline placement onto font metrics, and 1.2.1 cleaned up the bugs those introduced.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is converging on typographic fidelity rather than new capability. Early work settled layout semantics — CSS margin collapsing, inline padding reserving space during shaping, devices without glyph support — and recent releases refine how decorations are drawn and measured. The naming cleanup in 1.2.0, border_size becoming border_width, reads as an API being tidied ahead of wider use rather than one still being explored.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases sanding down rendering edge cases in ggplot2 contexts, since that is where the recent bug reports come from; nothing here signals a new feature area.
pharmaversesdtm
0.0ANALYTICS
pharmaversesdtm is the test-data layer every pharmaverse package now builds against.
◆ Current state
The package ships example SDTM datasets and has grown one therapeutic area at a time — ophthalmology, oncology response criteria, vaccines, metabolic, neurology, and now lymphoma under Lugano 2014. Sibling packages keep moving their internal test data here, so its release notes double as a record of what the rest of the pharmaverse is building.
◆ Where it's heading
Two kinds of work alternate: adding domains and biomarkers for a new indication, and making the existing data easier to reach — CSV copies under inst/extdata for non-R programmers, a datasets preview vignette, reference pages categorised by therapeutic area, variable-by-variable breakdowns. Consistency fixes against CDISC terminology and SDTM guidelines run through every release.
◆ Prediction
New therapeutic areas will keep arriving in step with the admiral extension packages that need them; the neurology and metabolic datasets landed just ahead of admiralneuro and admiralmetabolic needing them, and lymphoma looks like the next in that sequence.
Alternatives to marquee and pharmaversesdtm
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 marquee or pharmaversesdtm.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
FedData
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
See all marquee alternatives → · See all pharmaversesdtm alternatives →
Recent activity from marquee and pharmaversesdtm
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agopharmaversesdtmLymphoma response data and geographic-atrophy tests
- 4mo agopharmaversesdtmCSV exports and microbiology domains for wider access
- 7mo agopharmaversesdtmNeurological SDTM datasets and Alzheimer's biomarkers
- 11mo agomarqueeBug fixes for relative sizes, outlines and guide width
- 11mo agomarqueeBorder and outline line types; underlines follow font metrics
- 11mo agomarqueeRotated text width fixed; factor input supported
- 11mo agopharmaversesdtmMaintainer and licensing update
- 0y agomarqueeText outlines, size shortcuts and images from URLs
- 1y agopharmaversesdtmMetabolic SDTM datasets and PCWG3 oncology response
- 1y agopharmaversesdtmGCIG response data and automated reference pages
- 1y agomarquee1.0 settles margin collapsing and inline decoration spacing
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between marquee and pharmaversesdtm?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. marquee and pharmaversesdtm 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 marquee better than pharmaversesdtm?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. marquee and pharmaversesdtm 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 marquee?
Top marquee alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "marquee alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/marquee for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to pharmaversesdtm?
Top pharmaversesdtm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pharmaversesdtm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pharmaversesdtm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.