rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
modeldata vs taxa
A side-by-side editorial comparison of modeldata and taxa — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
modeldata vs taxa: at a glance
What is modeldata?
The tidymodels example-data package grows one dataset at a time, on nobody's schedule
modeldata exists to supply the datasets and simulation functions that tidymodels documentation, tests, and teaching material depend on. Releases arrive roughly once or twice a year and consist almost entirely of new data sets plus occasional simulation methods. The most recent work adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation and moves the package off the magrittr pipe onto base R's.
What is taxa?
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
0.4.0 began a complete rewrite aimed at making the component classes behave like base R vectors, explicitly shipping without the `taxmap` class and parking the old implementation inside metacoder until the new one matured. Four years later that is still where things stand: 0.4.2 experimented with `''` instead of `NA` for missing values and chased a vctrs test break, and 0.4.4 fixed CRAN check issues. The releases before the rewrite were the productive ones — `taxonomy_table()`, `print_tree()`, `get_dataset()`, fuzzy name matching, faster parsers.
modeldata vs taxa: editorial side-by-side
modeldata
0.0ANALYTICS
The tidymodels example-data package grows one dataset at a time, on nobody's schedule
◆ Current state
modeldata exists to supply the datasets and simulation functions that tidymodels documentation, tests, and teaching material depend on. Releases arrive roughly once or twice a year and consist almost entirely of new data sets plus occasional simulation methods. The most recent work adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation and moves the package off the magrittr pipe onto base R's.
◆ Where it's heading
Two lines run through the history: broadening coverage of task types — ordinal classification, multinomial, regression, QSAR-style chemistry data — and building out synthetic simulation so tutorials can demonstrate a method without shipping a real dataset for it. The simulation side has grown from a single regression generator into a family with logistic and multinomial variants and a keep_truth option that exposes the error-free outcome. Infrastructure changes appear only when the wider tidyverse moves, as the base-pipe transition shows.
◆ Prediction
The pattern points to another simulation method or a dataset filling a task type the collection still lacks, rather than any change in what the package does.
taxa
0.0ANALYTICS
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
◆ Current state
0.4.0 began a complete rewrite aimed at making the component classes behave like base R vectors, explicitly shipping without the `taxmap` class and parking the old implementation inside metacoder until the new one matured. Four years later that is still where things stand: 0.4.2 experimented with `''` instead of `NA` for missing values and chased a vctrs test break, and 0.4.4 fixed CRAN check issues. The releases before the rewrite were the productive ones — `taxonomy_table()`, `print_tree()`, `get_dataset()`, fuzzy name matching, faster parsers.
◆ Where it's heading
The rewrite has not landed. `taxmap`, the class most users came for, was never reimplemented in the new design, and the only releases since are CRAN compliance. Meanwhile metacoder still carries the old taxa, which means the ecosystem is running on the version the rewrite was meant to replace. This reads as a stalled migration rather than an active one.
◆ Prediction
Nothing in the entries indicates the rewrite is resuming; the likely next release is another CRAN-check fix. Whether `taxmap` ever arrives in the new design is unresolved.
Alternatives to modeldata and taxa
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 modeldata or taxa.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
rstanarm
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
rotl
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
taxize
taxize spends its releases absorbing other people's API changes, one dead source at a time.
See all modeldata alternatives → · See all taxa alternatives →
Recent activity from modeldata and taxa
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agomodeldatamodeldata 1.5.1 fixes documentation and column-name typos
- 1y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.5.0 adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation
- 1y agotaxataxa 0.4.4 fixes CRAN check issues
- 2y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.4.0 adds the cat_adoption data set
- 2y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.3.0 adds the deliveries data set
- 3y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.2.0 adds eight data sets across regression and classification
- 3y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.1.0 adds logistic and multinomial simulation plus keep_truth
- 4y agotaxataxa 0.4.2 tries empty strings for missing values
- 5y agotaxataxa 0.4.0 begins a base-R-vector rewrite without taxmap ⚡
- 6y agotaxataxa 0.3.4 fixes n_obs with numeric column names
- 6y agotaxataxa 0.3.3 supports numeric column names in taxmap
- 7y agotaxataxa 0.3.2 fixes parsers and adds negative class_col indexes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between modeldata and taxa?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. modeldata and taxa 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 modeldata better than taxa?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. modeldata and taxa 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 modeldata?
Top modeldata alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "modeldata alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/modeldata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to taxa?
Top taxa alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "taxa alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/taxa-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.