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Comparison · Analytics
redist vs stockplotr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of redist and stockplotr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r
redist vs stockplotr: at a glance
What is redist?
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
redist simulates redistricting plans via sequential Monte Carlo, merge-split MCMC and short-burst optimization, and it is the analysis tool behind a good deal of published districting work. The user-facing shape was set by 4.0.1's constraint interface and the split of metrics into the redistmetrics package; since then the changes are in the algorithms. The most consequential recent one replaces the SMC label-counting adjustment with a backward kernel that removes approximation error outright.
What is stockplotr?
A stock-assessment plotting package is growing a table engine to match its figures.
stockplotr generates the figures and, since 0.8.0-beta, the tables that go into NOAA fisheries stock assessment reports. The 0.8.0 release swapped the table backend from flextable to gt and shipped table_landings() as the first table function; 0.9.0 exported it with an interface deliberately mirroring the plot functions. Alongside that, convert_output() moved in from the sister package asar so model output is standardized here rather than upstream.
redist vs stockplotr: editorial side-by-side
redist
0.0ANALYTICS
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
◆ Current state
redist simulates redistricting plans via sequential Monte Carlo, merge-split MCMC and short-burst optimization, and it is the analysis tool behind a good deal of published districting work. The user-facing shape was set by 4.0.1's constraint interface and the split of metrics into the redistmetrics package; since then the changes are in the algorithms. The most consequential recent one replaces the SMC label-counting adjustment with a backward kernel that removes approximation error outright.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward exactness and throughput at once — the new kernel is described as both eliminating approximation error and costing far less computation, and successive releases keep adding parallelism, most recently to the flip algorithm. Feature growth has moved into the optimization side, where short-burst gained multiple independent scorers and a Pareto frontier. The release notes are not a reliable ledger: 4.3.1 ships the identical text as 4.3.0.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining single-threaded algorithms to gain the chains-style parallelism that flip just received, following the pattern SMC established several releases ago.
stockplotr
0.0ANALYTICS
A stock-assessment plotting package is growing a table engine to match its figures.
◆ Current state
stockplotr generates the figures and, since 0.8.0-beta, the tables that go into NOAA fisheries stock assessment reports. The 0.8.0 release swapped the table backend from flextable to gt and shipped table_landings() as the first table function; 0.9.0 exported it with an interface deliberately mirroring the plot functions. Alongside that, convert_output() moved in from the sister package asar so model output is standardized here rather than upstream.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is consolidating the whole report-artifact pipeline in one place: standardize model output, then emit both figures and tables from the same long-format frame. Pulling convert_output() out of asar because stockplotr depended on it more heavily is the clearest signal of where the center of gravity now sits. Everything is still tagged beta, and the plot function count is growing faster than the table one.
◆ Prediction
More table_* functions built on the gt foundation are the obvious next step, matching the existing plot_* set; the 0.9.0 notes describe table_landings() as the first of a revamped family rather than a one-off.
Alternatives to redist and stockplotr
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 redist or stockplotr.
epikit
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
SimInf
SimInf 10.0 turns an epidemic simulator into a tool that fits models to real time series
mutagen
A young package porting Stata's egen row-wise helpers to the tidyverse, one function per release
broman
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
qtl
R/qtl is in pure custodial mode: every recent release answers a compiler, not a user
See all redist alternatives → · See all stockplotr alternatives →
Recent activity from redist and stockplotr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agostockplotrtable_landings() exported with a plot-like interface
- 6mo agoredistParallel chains for redist_flip()
- 6mo agoredistPatch release reusing the 4.3.0 notes
- 6mo agostockplotrTable engine moved to gt; first table function ships ⚡
- 7mo agostockplotrconvert_output() migrated in from asar
- 8mo agostockplotrFour new assessment figures; process_data() auto-indexing
- 10mo agoredistSMC backward kernel removes label-counting approximation error
- 2y agoredistMulti-objective short-burst search with Pareto frontier
- 3y agoredistredist_ci interface and faster loop-erased random walk
- 4y agoredistredist_constr() unifies constraints and admits user-defined ones ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between redist and stockplotr?
Both compete on the same themes — r — within Analytics. redist and stockplotr 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 redist better than stockplotr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. redist and stockplotr 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 redist?
Top redist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "redist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/redist-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to stockplotr?
Top stockplotr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "stockplotr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/stockplotr-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.