TidyDensity
A distribution catalogue that grows by one family at a time, and rarely breaks anything.
Comparison · Analytics
soilDB vs TLF-Library
A side-by-side editorial comparison of soilDB and TLF-Library — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
soilDB vs TLF-Library: at a glance
What is soilDB?
The R front door to USDA soil data finishes a long deprecation cleanup and turns local-first.
soilDB is the R access layer for USDA-NRCS soil data: NASIS local databases, Soil Data Access, SoilWeb coverage services, and a widening set of curated national grids. The 2.9.x line closed out a multi-release deprecation cycle — column aliases and stringsAsFactors are gone, R 4.1 is the floor, and the bundled sample profile collections were rebuilt against the new schema. Recent work has shifted from adding query functions to making existing ones faster and usable against local SQLite or GeoPackage copies.
What is TLF-Library?
The Open Systems Pharmacology plotting layer spent 2025 absorbing a ggplot2 major break.
tlf is the plotting library behind Open Systems Pharmacology's tables, listings and figures — a ggplot2 wrapper producing the PK/PD reporting output the OSP suite generates. Recent work splits into two strands: a feature set adding Lower Limit Of Quantification annotation to time-profile and observed-vs-predicted plots alongside a reworked axis-limits API, and then hot fixes to survive ggplot2 v4.0.0's breaking changes. The axis change is the substantive one, separating cropping the view from filtering the data behind it.
soilDB vs TLF-Library: editorial side-by-side
soilDB
0.0ANALYTICS
The R front door to USDA soil data finishes a long deprecation cleanup and turns local-first.
◆ Current state
soilDB is the R access layer for USDA-NRCS soil data: NASIS local databases, Soil Data Access, SoilWeb coverage services, and a widening set of curated national grids. The 2.9.x line closed out a multi-release deprecation cycle — column aliases and stringsAsFactors are gone, R 4.1 is the floor, and the bundled sample profile collections were rebuilt against the new schema. Recent work has shifted from adding query functions to making existing ones faster and usable against local SQLite or GeoPackage copies.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc points at offline and local-first workflows. downloadSSURGO() and createSSURGO() keep gaining arguments for building and querying local SSURGO databases, and the query internals were rewritten as common table expressions so identical code runs against the remote service or a local file. Coverage is widening in parallel: FY26 SoilWeb maps now reach most OCONUS surveys, while fetchHWSD() and fetchSOLUS() pull in datasets outside the core NASIS/SSURGO pair. Federal URL churn — EDIT, SoilWeb, S3-hosted geometry — is a recurring maintenance tax the package absorbs on users' behalf.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to keep extending parallel and offline SSURGO handling, since LAPPLY.FUN has just opened the door to arbitrary parallel backends, and to fold more curated SoilWeb and FAO datasets behind fetch* wrappers.
TLF-Library
0.0ANALYTICS
The Open Systems Pharmacology plotting layer spent 2025 absorbing a ggplot2 major break.
◆ Current state
tlf is the plotting library behind Open Systems Pharmacology's tables, listings and figures — a ggplot2 wrapper producing the PK/PD reporting output the OSP suite generates. Recent work splits into two strands: a feature set adding Lower Limit Of Quantification annotation to time-profile and observed-vs-predicted plots alongside a reworked axis-limits API, and then hot fixes to survive ggplot2 v4.0.0's breaking changes. The axis change is the substantive one, separating cropping the view from filtering the data behind it.
◆ Where it's heading
The library is maturing into a stable reporting dependency rather than growing new plot types — the newest releases are watermark placement, log-tick safety and upstream compatibility, not new figures. Its exposure is to ggplot2: v4.0.0 required same-day hot fixes, which is the risk profile of a wrapper this thin. Note that this feed's version numbers and publication stamps disagree, with 1.5.170 stamped four months before the lower-numbered 1.5.158, so the release order has to be read from version numbers and the changelog ranges rather than from the feed order.
◆ Prediction
With the ggplot2 v4 fallout patched and the LLOQ work promoted to a stable 1.6 line, the next releases most likely continue as small rendering fixes. Nothing in these entries points to a new plot class in progress.
Alternatives to soilDB and TLF-Library
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 soilDB or TLF-Library.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
sdsfun
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
See all soilDB alternatives → · See all TLF-Library alternatives →
Recent activity from soilDB and TLF-Library
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agosoilDBFY26 soil maps reach OCONUS; SSURGO downloads go parallel
- 4mo agosoilDBROSETTA v2 lands as the deprecated NASIS aliases are removed ⚡
- 9mo agoTLF-LibraryWatermark positioning decoupled from plot scales
- 10mo agosoilDBNASIS record IDs now retrievable through Soil Data Access
- 11mo agoTLF-LibraryHot fixes for ggplot2 v4.0.0 breaking changes
- 11mo agoTLF-LibraryLLOQ annotation and axis cropping split from data filtering
- 11mo agosoilDBSpatial queries can pull columns from non-spatial tables
- 1y agosoilDBNASIS 7.4.3 metadata, plus HWSD and a local cache in 2.8.10
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryDev build introducing LLOQ plots and the xAxisLimits rename
- 1y agosoilDBQuery internals rewritten as CTEs for local SQLite support
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryError-bar cap fixes atop a restated feature list
- 1y agoTLF-LibraryDual-axis plots stop tripping cowplot
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between soilDB and TLF-Library?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. soilDB and TLF-Library 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 soilDB better than TLF-Library?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. soilDB and TLF-Library 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 soilDB?
Top soilDB alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "soilDB alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/soildb for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to TLF-Library?
Top TLF-Library alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "TLF-Library alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tlf-library for the full list with editorial commentary on each.