rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
see vs taxa
A side-by-side editorial comparison of see and taxa — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
see vs taxa: at a glance
What is see?
see grows wherever easystats adds a diagnostic, one plot method at a time.
see is the visualization layer for the easystats ecosystem, supplying plot() methods for performance, parameters and datawizard objects. Each release adds methods for whatever those packages shipped — prior predictive checks, DAG diagrams, factor-analysis graphs — alongside steady theme and geom refinement.
What is taxa?
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
0.4.0 began a complete rewrite aimed at making the component classes behave like base R vectors, explicitly shipping without the `taxmap` class and parking the old implementation inside metacoder until the new one matured. Four years later that is still where things stand: 0.4.2 experimented with `''` instead of `NA` for missing values and chased a vctrs test break, and 0.4.4 fixed CRAN check issues. The releases before the rewrite were the productive ones — `taxonomy_table()`, `print_tree()`, `get_dataset()`, fuzzy name matching, faster parsers.
see vs taxa: editorial side-by-side
see
0.0ANALYTICS
see grows wherever easystats adds a diagnostic, one plot method at a time.
◆ Current state
see is the visualization layer for the easystats ecosystem, supplying plot() methods for performance, parameters and datawizard objects. Each release adds methods for whatever those packages shipped — prior predictive checks, DAG diagrams, factor-analysis graphs — alongside steady theme and geom refinement.
◆ Where it's heading
Growth here is downstream-driven rather than self-directed: see expands to cover new diagnostics as easystats produces them. Running alongside that is a sustained investment in presentation control — theme arguments on plot methods, elements that scale with base_size — which suits users embedding these plots in documents rather than glancing at them interactively.
◆ Prediction
Expect new plot methods to keep arriving in step with performance and parameters releases, with continued theming work rather than any change in the package's scope.
taxa
0.0ANALYTICS
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
◆ Current state
0.4.0 began a complete rewrite aimed at making the component classes behave like base R vectors, explicitly shipping without the `taxmap` class and parking the old implementation inside metacoder until the new one matured. Four years later that is still where things stand: 0.4.2 experimented with `''` instead of `NA` for missing values and chased a vctrs test break, and 0.4.4 fixed CRAN check issues. The releases before the rewrite were the productive ones — `taxonomy_table()`, `print_tree()`, `get_dataset()`, fuzzy name matching, faster parsers.
◆ Where it's heading
The rewrite has not landed. `taxmap`, the class most users came for, was never reimplemented in the new design, and the only releases since are CRAN compliance. Meanwhile metacoder still carries the old taxa, which means the ecosystem is running on the version the rewrite was meant to replace. This reads as a stalled migration rather than an active one.
◆ Prediction
Nothing in the entries indicates the rewrite is resuming; the likely next release is another CRAN-check fix. Whether `taxmap` ever arrives in the new design is unresolved.
Alternatives to see and taxa
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 see or taxa.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
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.
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.
Recent activity from see and taxa
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoseesee 0.14.1 adds plots for prior checks and grouped means
- 2mo agoseesee 0.14.0 renders factor loadings as node-edge graphs
- 6mo agoseesee 0.13.0 fixes reversed plot sorting, adds theme arguments
- 11mo agoseesee 0.12.0 extends normality checks to psych factor models
- 1y agotaxataxa 0.4.4 fixes CRAN check issues
- 1y agoseesee 0.11.0 scales theme elements with base_size
- 1y agoseesee 0.10.0 plots random-effect group levels for mixed models
- 4y agotaxataxa 0.4.2 tries empty strings for missing values
- 5y agotaxataxa 0.4.0 begins a base-R-vector rewrite without taxmap ⚡
- 6y agotaxataxa 0.3.4 fixes n_obs with numeric column names
- 6y agotaxataxa 0.3.3 supports numeric column names in taxmap
- 7y agotaxataxa 0.3.2 fixes parsers and adds negative class_col indexes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between see and taxa?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. see and taxa 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 see better than taxa?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. see and taxa 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 see?
Top see alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "see alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/see-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to taxa?
Top taxa alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "taxa alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/taxa-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.