Casdoor
casdoor ships several times a day, mostly tightening organization boundaries.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
pkgdown vs waldo
A side-by-side editorial comparison of pkgdown and waldo — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
pkgdown vs waldo: at a glance
What is pkgdown?
pkgdown now generates llms.txt and a markdown copy of every documentation page
pkgdown builds the documentation sites for most R packages. The 2.1 line was about format and appearance - Quarto vignettes, a light and dark switch, self-hosted assets instead of CDN fetches. The 2.2 line changed audience: build_llm_docs() emits an llms.txt at the site root and a markdown version of every page, on by default.
What is waldo?
waldo keeps shedding dependencies while teaching its diff engine new object systems
waldo produces the object comparisons that testthat failure messages are built from. The recent releases do two things: drop dependencies - tibble, rematch2 and fansi have all gone - and extend comparison to object systems that did not exist when it was written, notably S7. Correctness of missing-value and tolerance semantics accounts for most of the rest.
pkgdown vs waldo: editorial side-by-side
pkgdown
0.0INFRA · APIS
pkgdown now generates llms.txt and a markdown copy of every documentation page
◆ Current state
pkgdown builds the documentation sites for most R packages. The 2.1 line was about format and appearance - Quarto vignettes, a light and dark switch, self-hosted assets instead of CDN fetches. The 2.2 line changed audience: build_llm_docs() emits an llms.txt at the site root and a markdown version of every page, on by default.
◆ Where it's heading
Two audiences are now being served from one build. Human-facing work continues in small increments - dark-mode plot filtering, new translations, a local http server so search works in preview - while the new machine-facing output is opt-out rather than opt-in. The default matters more than the feature: thousands of package sites will start emitting llms.txt without their maintainers choosing to.
◆ Prediction
Expect the markdown output to gain the same configuration surface the HTML has, and the llms.txt contents to get more selective as maintainers discover what ends up in it; a way to exclude individual pages is the obvious next request.
waldo
0.0INFRA · APIS
waldo keeps shedding dependencies while teaching its diff engine new object systems
◆ Current state
waldo produces the object comparisons that testthat failure messages are built from. The recent releases do two things: drop dependencies - tibble, rematch2 and fansi have all gone - and extend comparison to object systems that did not exist when it was written, notably S7. Correctness of missing-value and tolerance semantics accounts for most of the rest.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a package deliberately shrinking its footprint while widening what it understands. Since it is imported by testthat, every dependency it drops is one fewer package in the check environment of most of CRAN, which is clearly the motivation. The comparison logic itself changes only when R gains a new way to represent objects.
◆ Prediction
Expect S7 support to deepen from basic to complete as S7 adoption grows, and further dependency removals; the diff algorithm itself looks settled.
Alternatives to pkgdown and waldo
Other Infra & APIs 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 pkgdown or waldo.
downlit
downlit's HTML contract was set in 0.4.0; every release since tracks R itself.
dittodb
dittodb has spent four years on CRAN link fixes and one DBI bump.
connectapi
connectapi is becoming the scripted administration surface for Posit Connect.
chromote
chromote turned the browser itself into a pinned, downloadable dependency.
lifecycle
lifecycle gave the tidyverse the word superseded, then spent years tuning who gets warned
See all pkgdown alternatives → · See all waldo alternatives →
Recent activity from pkgdown and waldo
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agopkgdownLocal preview served over http so search works
- 9mo agopkgdownbuild_llm_docs() emits llms.txt and markdown for every page ⚡
- 1y agowaldoCompares weakrefs, ignores read-only S7 properties
- 1y agopkgdownMenu items accept class and id attributes
- 1y agopkgdownROR IDs, Codeberg support, bslib navbar variables
- 1y agowaldoOnly uses bit64 comparison when bit64 is installed
- 1y agowaldoDrops tibble and rematch2; adds basic S7 support
- 1y agopkgdownKeyboard shortcut for search; clean_cache() added
- 1y agowaldoDrops the fansi dependency
- 2y agopkgdownQuarto vignettes, light/dark switch, self-hosted assets
- 2y agowaldoFixes for upcoming R-devel changes
- 3y agowaldoTolerance now governs both display and NaN equality
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between pkgdown and waldo?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. pkgdown and waldo 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 pkgdown better than waldo?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. pkgdown and waldo 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to pkgdown?
Top pkgdown alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pkgdown alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pkgdown for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to waldo?
Top waldo alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "waldo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/waldo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.