rjd3highfreq
rjd3highfreq ships whatever the Java side ships, and only occasionally says what that was.
Comparison · Analytics
units vs vellumplot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of units and vellumplot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
units vs vellumplot: at a glance
What is units?
units reaches 1.0 by rewriting its parser and accepting the breakage that comes with it.
units attaches physical units to R vectors on top of the udunits2 library, covering arithmetic, conversion and ggplot2 scales. Version 1.0-0 replaced the unit-expression tokenizer so numbers are consistently treated as prefixes, and expressions like ml/min/1.73m^2 now parse the way physiologists write them. Printing follows NIST conventions, and 1.0-1 is a fix pass over memory handling and parser edge cases.
What is vellumplot?
vellumplot tags its first release with a bet most R grammars don't make: the static figure and the widget are the same object.
A new grammar of graphics built on the vellum vector engine, developing fast — ten releases in roughly three weeks — and now at its first tagged release. The distinguishing architectural claim is that the compiled plot is the scene, so a static export and an interactive widget cannot drift apart, and that it renders without a graphics device because vellum measures text itself. Accessibility is treated as a first-class output rather than an afterthought: tagged PDF with a navigable structure tree and alt text, a plot_lint() check, and colour-vision-deficiency simulation at render time.
units vs vellumplot: editorial side-by-side
units
0.0ANALYTICS
units reaches 1.0 by rewriting its parser and accepting the breakage that comes with it.
◆ Current state
units attaches physical units to R vectors on top of the udunits2 library, covering arithmetic, conversion and ggplot2 scales. Version 1.0-0 replaced the unit-expression tokenizer so numbers are consistently treated as prefixes, and expressions like ml/min/1.73m^2 now parse the way physiologists write them. Printing follows NIST conventions, and 1.0-1 is a fix pass over memory handling and parser edge cases.
◆ Where it's heading
The long 0.8-x run was accretion — ggplot2 scales absorbed from ggforce, ud_convert(), matrix methods, steady performance work — while known parsing defects stayed in place. The 1.0 release finally traded backwards compatibility for correct parsing, and 1.0-1's pointer-wrapping and exception-propagation work suggests the C++ glue is being hardened behind it. Fixes cluster at the udunits2 boundary, which remains the main source of surprises.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued patch releases against udunits2 quirks and the new tokenizer's fallout rather than new surface area, with the ggplot2 integration and conversion helpers already in place.
vellumplot
6.3ANALYTICS
vellumplot tags its first release with a bet most R grammars don't make: the static figure and the widget are the same object.
◆ Current state
A new grammar of graphics built on the vellum vector engine, developing fast — ten releases in roughly three weeks — and now at its first tagged release. The distinguishing architectural claim is that the compiled plot is the scene, so a static export and an interactive widget cannot drift apart, and that it renders without a graphics device because vellum measures text itself. Accessibility is treated as a first-class output rather than an afterthought: tagged PDF with a navigable structure tree and alt text, a plot_lint() check, and colour-vision-deficiency simulation at render time.
◆ Where it's heading
The release sequence shows a grammar filling in ggplot2-parity features and specialist marks in parallel. Parity work landed as secondary axes, rich legend titles, and Sankey styling; the specialist end added categorical datashading, image marks, flow maps and edge bundling for dense graphs. Version 0.7.0 shows a willingness to break early — vsunburst() was removed outright in favour of one vhierarchy() constructor covering sunburst, icicle, treemap and circlepack — which is the right time to do it and suggests the API is still being consolidated toward fewer, more general constructors.
◆ Prediction
Expect more consolidation of near-duplicate constructors under type arguments and continued expansion of the declarative interactivity introduced in 0.7.0, now that the first tagged release has fixed a public API surface.
Alternatives to units and vellumplot
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 units or vellumplot.
audubon
audubon's release feed is almost entirely Renovate bumping the JavaScript toolchain behind its Japanese text splitter.
affiner
affiner is quietly turning a grid transformation helper into a small computational geometry library.
ageproR
ageproR spent two years chasing a moving file format, then added the recruitment models that justify the effort.
r-ledger
ledger adds a Rust toolchain fallback, so beancount imports work whether or not the Python tooling is installed.
gridpattern
gridpattern keeps widening its catalogue, and the newest patterns finally use the device's own line rendering.
See all units alternatives → · See all vellumplot alternatives →
Recent activity from units and vellumplot
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agovellumplotFirst tagged release: one spec compiles to PNG, SVG, tagged PDF and a widget ⚡
- 19d agovellumplotFlow maps and edge bundling for dense graph plots
- 24d agovellumplotvhierarchy() replaces vsunburst(); declarative interactivity arrives
- 26d agovellumplotSankey crossing minimisation and per-branch sunburst colouring
- 29d agovellumplotSecondary axes land; rich legend titles stop clipping
- 1mo agovellumplotCategorical datashading in one call, plus image marks at data points
- 5mo agounitsMemory-leak and udunits2 parsing fixes after 1.0
- 10mo agounitsNew tokenizer parses compound units correctly ⚡
- 1y agounitsCopy semantics fix in ud_convert(); C++17 for old R
- 1y agounitscbind/rbind methods, ud_convert() and broad fixes
- 1y agounitsSilences a CRAN compiler warning
- 2y agounitsRestores simplify=FALSE for identical units
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between units and vellumplot?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. vellumplot is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is units better than vellumplot?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. vellumplot is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to units?
Top units alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "units alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/units-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to vellumplot?
Top vellumplot alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "vellumplot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/vellumplot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.