paleobuddy
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
Comparison · Analytics
oblicubes vs treespace
A side-by-side editorial comparison of oblicubes and treespace — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
oblicubes vs treespace: 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 treespace?
treespace ships once every year or two, and only when CRAN or a user forces it.
treespace explores and compares sets of phylogenetic and transmission trees, including the tree-distance measures used in outbreak reconstruction. Its release history is entirely reactive: five updates across five years, each triggered by a CRAN policy change, an upstream package removal, or a bug someone reported. The most recent is an Rd cross-reference format patch plus a maintainer email change.
oblicubes vs treespace: 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.
treespace
0.0ANALYTICS
treespace ships once every year or two, and only when CRAN or a user forces it.
◆ Current state
treespace explores and compares sets of phylogenetic and transmission trees, including the tree-distance measures used in outbreak reconstruction. Its release history is entirely reactive: five updates across five years, each triggered by a CRAN policy change, an upstream package removal, or a bug someone reported. The most recent is an Rd cross-reference format patch plus a maintainer email change.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is stable and lightly staffed rather than abandoned — bugs that affect correctness do get fixed, and CRAN deadlines are met. But the 2023 update is the telling one: rather than vendor or replace adephylo when it faced removal, the maintainers disabled two tree-vector methods and marked the loss as hopefully temporary. Two years on, nothing in the feed indicates they came back.
◆ Prediction
The next entry will most likely be another CRAN-compliance patch, on the pattern of four of the last five releases. Whether the Abouheif and sumDD methods ever return is not something these entries give any signal on.
Alternatives to oblicubes and treespace
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 treespace.
geodist
geodist stays dependency-free and fast, and warns you when 'cheap' distances stop being honest.
errors
errors keeps making uncertainty print the way each scientific field expects.
CMAQ
CMAQ went global in v5.5, and has been patching that surface ever since.
enpls
enpls has not changed its statistics since 2016 — only its website, twice.
grex
grex is a lookup table with a version number — it ships when the annotation moves.
See all oblicubes alternatives → · See all treespace alternatives →
Recent activity from oblicubes and treespace
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agooblicubesExamples updated to dplyr::reframe()
- 11mo agotreespacetreespace patches Rd cross-references for CRAN
- 1y agooblicubesR 4.1 pipe removed from examples; image alt text added
- 2y agotreespacetreespace disables Abouheif and sumDD as adephylo exits CRAN
- 3y agotreespacetreespace fixes vignette build on NA tree names
- 3y agooblicubesInitial release: oblique-projection cube and cuboid grobs
- 5y agotreespacetreespace fixes dist indexing that broke its tests
- 5y agotreespacetreespace corrects tip label handling in transmission distances
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between oblicubes and treespace?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. oblicubes and treespace 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 treespace?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. oblicubes and treespace 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 treespace?
Top treespace alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "treespace alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/treespace-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.