arulesViz
arulesViz finished its move to ggplot2 and has been coasting on maintenance since.
Comparison · Analytics
oblicubes vs paletteer
A side-by-side editorial comparison of oblicubes and paletteer — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
oblicubes vs paletteer: at a glance
What is oblicubes?
A tiny grid renderer for oblique-projection cubes, complete since its first release.
oblicubes draws 3D cubes and cuboids in oblique projection as grid grobs, with ggplot2 geom wrappers and a height-matrix helper for turning elevation data into coordinates. The entire feature set arrived in the initial 0.1.2 release, adapted from coolbutuseless's isocubes and cj-holmes's isocuboids. The two releases since have widened compatibility rather than added anything.
What is paletteer?
A palette aggregator that grows by absorbing other packages, not by changing shape
paletteer collects colour palettes from across the R ecosystem behind one consistent interface, so users can reference any of them by a single name rather than installing each source package. Its function surface has been essentially fixed for years; what changes each release is the catalogue. Version 1.7.0 pulls in palettes from ButterflyColors, feathers, ggsci, khroma, PrettyCols, tayloRswift, blueycolors, amerika, Rdune and poisonfrogs, and tightens argument checking.
oblicubes vs paletteer: editorial side-by-side
oblicubes
0.0ANALYTICS
A tiny grid renderer for oblique-projection cubes, complete since its first release.
◆ Current state
oblicubes draws 3D cubes and cuboids in oblique projection as grid grobs, with ggplot2 geom wrappers and a height-matrix helper for turning elevation data into coordinates. The entire feature set arrived in the initial 0.1.2 release, adapted from coolbutuseless's isocubes and cj-holmes's isocuboids. The two releases since have widened compatibility rather than added anything.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is finished and its maintainer is treating it that way. 1.0.0 removed the R 4.1 native pipe from examples specifically so earlier R versions could use it — reaching backward, not forward — and added image alt text. The only change since is swapping a deprecated dplyr call in examples.
◆ Prediction
Expect nothing beyond occasional dependency deprecation fixes; the release pattern shows a small, deliberately complete package being kept installable.
paletteer
0.0ANALYTICS
A palette aggregator that grows by absorbing other packages, not by changing shape
◆ Current state
paletteer collects colour palettes from across the R ecosystem behind one consistent interface, so users can reference any of them by a single name rather than installing each source package. Its function surface has been essentially fixed for years; what changes each release is the catalogue. Version 1.7.0 pulls in palettes from ButterflyColors, feathers, ggsci, khroma, PrettyCols, tayloRswift, blueycolors, amerika, Rdune and poisonfrogs, and tightens argument checking.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a catalogue, and catalogues grow by ingestion. Every substantive release since 1.3.0 is a list of source packages absorbed, in batches of tens to low hundreds of palettes, with occasional maintenance on the metadata tables that describe them. Release cadence follows contributor pull requests rather than any internal roadmap — roughly one release every one to two years, each bundling whatever accumulated.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same: another release when enough new source packages have been proposed, likely paired with further work on palettes_c_names and palettes_d_names, the only part of the package that has been iterated on for its own sake.
Alternatives to oblicubes and paletteer
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 oblicubes or paletteer.
EvoPhylo
EvoPhylo added BEAST2 alongside MrBayes, then went quiet for two years.
treespace
treespace ships once every year or two, and only when CRAN or a user forces it.
Rpath
Rpath 1.1.0 learns to read Ecopath's own files, easing migration off the desktop tool.
TAF
TAF keeps turning ICES stock assessments into reproducible, dependency-pinned projects.
parallelDist
parallelDist is in pure preservation mode — one build fix every few years.
See all oblicubes alternatives → · See all paletteer alternatives →
Recent activity from oblicubes and paletteer
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agooblicubesExamples updated to dplyr::reframe()
- 7mo agopaletteerTen more source packages absorbed; argument checking tightened
- 1y agooblicubesR 4.1 pipe removed from examples; image alt text added
- 2y agopaletteerRoughly 170 palettes added from seven art and design packages
- 3y agopaletteerMetBrewer, NatParksPalettes and six more sources added
- 3y agooblicubesInitial release: oblique-projection cube and cuboid grobs
- 4y agopaletteerHTML5-friendly documentation fix
- 5y agopaletteerggprism and nbapalettes added; palette metadata enriched
- 5y agopaletteersoilpalettes, rockthemes and Manu palettes added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between oblicubes and paletteer?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Analytics. oblicubes and paletteer 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 oblicubes better than paletteer?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. oblicubes and paletteer 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 oblicubes?
Top oblicubes alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "oblicubes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/oblicubes-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to paletteer?
Top paletteer alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "paletteer alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/paletteer-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.