writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
Comparison · Analytics
rnaturalearth vs tidyposterior
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rnaturalearth and tidyposterior — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
rnaturalearth vs tidyposterior: at a glance
What is rnaturalearth?
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
1.0.0 ended sp support outright, making sf the default and offering terra's SpatVector via `returnclass`, after 0.3.3 had signposted that with lifecycle badges. The two releases since move to delivery mechanics: 1.1.0 reads data directly out of the zip through the GDAL Virtual File System, starts moving unloaded downloads to GeoPackage instead of shapefile, and switches the base URL to naciscdn.org; 1.2.0 adds caching to `ne_download()` when `destdir` is persistent, swaps devtools for pak when installing the companion data packages, and handles Natural Earth's inconsistent raster zip layouts.
What is tidyposterior?
A finished Bayesian model-comparison package in pure maintenance mode
tidyposterior compares model performance using Bayesian resampling analysis, and it reached its intended shape years ago. Every release since 1.0.0 has been maintenance: a broken test under R-devel, a maintainer email change, and most recently compatibility with an upcoming ggplot2 release plus the base-pipe transition. The substantive API decisions — autoplot() over ggplot() methods, tibble returns from contrast_models() — were settled in the 0.x series.
rnaturalearth vs tidyposterior: editorial side-by-side
rnaturalearth
0.0ANALYTICS
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
◆ Current state
1.0.0 ended sp support outright, making sf the default and offering terra's SpatVector via `returnclass`, after 0.3.3 had signposted that with lifecycle badges. The two releases since move to delivery mechanics: 1.1.0 reads data directly out of the zip through the GDAL Virtual File System, starts moving unloaded downloads to GeoPackage instead of shapefile, and switches the base URL to naciscdn.org; 1.2.0 adds caching to `ne_download()` when `destdir` is persistent, swaps devtools for pak when installing the companion data packages, and handles Natural Earth's inconsistent raster zip layouts.
◆ Where it's heading
With the class question settled, the work has shifted to not re-downloading and not unpacking — VFS reads, caching, and a container format that does not need a sidecar of four files. That points at the package being used in repeated or automated contexts rather than interactive one-offs. The shapefile-to-GeoPackage transition is explicitly incomplete.
◆ Prediction
Completing the GeoPackage transition for `load = FALSE` downloads is the obvious next step, since 1.1.0 described it as in progress.
tidyposterior
0.0ANALYTICS
A finished Bayesian model-comparison package in pure maintenance mode
◆ Current state
tidyposterior compares model performance using Bayesian resampling analysis, and it reached its intended shape years ago. Every release since 1.0.0 has been maintenance: a broken test under R-devel, a maintainer email change, and most recently compatibility with an upcoming ggplot2 release plus the base-pipe transition. The substantive API decisions — autoplot() over ggplot() methods, tibble returns from contrast_models() — were settled in the 0.x series.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks its dependencies rather than developing on its own line, and the dependencies do the moving: rstanarm API changes, dplyr 1.0.0, testthat 3e, ggplot2. Its integration surface widened once, when perf_mod() gained methods for tuning parameter objects from tune, finetune, and workflowsets, and has been stable since. This is what a completed package in an active ecosystem looks like.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by an upstream change rather than by anything tidyposterior wants to do differently.
Alternatives to rnaturalearth and tidyposterior
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 rnaturalearth or tidyposterior.
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.
taxa
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
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 rnaturalearth alternatives → · See all tidyposterior alternatives →
Recent activity from rnaturalearth and tidyposterior
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.2.0
- 1y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.1.9000 prepares for an upcoming ggplot2 release
- 1y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.1.0
- 2y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.0.0 drops sp for sf and terra
- 2y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.1 fixes a test broken under R-devel
- 3y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 0.3.3 deprecates sp, imports terra
- 4y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.0 modernizes internals to pivot_longer and testthat 3e
- 5y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.1.0 adds perf_mod() methods for tune and workflowsets
- 6y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.0.3 returns tibbles and adds a formula override
- 7y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.0.2 removes example RData files for CRAN
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rnaturalearth and tidyposterior?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rnaturalearth and tidyposterior 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 rnaturalearth better than tidyposterior?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rnaturalearth and tidyposterior 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 rnaturalearth?
Top rnaturalearth alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rnaturalearth alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rnaturalearth for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidyposterior?
Top tidyposterior alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidyposterior alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidyposterior for the full list with editorial commentary on each.