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Comparison · Infra & APIs
afcharts vs rsofun
A side-by-side editorial comparison of afcharts and rsofun — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
afcharts vs rsofun: at a glance
What is afcharts?
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
afcharts supplies the UK Analysis Function's chart styling for ggplot2, as a theme, colour and fill scales, and a use_afcharts() call that applies the styling globally. Version 0.5.1 extends the sequential palette to five shades so it can carry quintile data such as deprivation bands, renames the na_colour argument to na.value, and adds a reset argument to switch the styling back off. The package began as a first release derived from sgplot and has had three releases in roughly two years.
What is rsofun?
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
rsofun wraps the P-model and BiomeE vegetation models in R with Fortran cores, covering photosynthesis, water balance and forest demography, plus Bayesian calibration. The 5.1.0 release is the first in the window to widen what the models simulate rather than reorganise them. Before it, the history is renaming, cost-function rewrites and output-format consistency work.
afcharts vs rsofun: editorial side-by-side
afcharts
0.0INFRA · APIS
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
◆ Current state
afcharts supplies the UK Analysis Function's chart styling for ggplot2, as a theme, colour and fill scales, and a use_afcharts() call that applies the styling globally. Version 0.5.1 extends the sequential palette to five shades so it can carry quintile data such as deprivation bands, renames the na_colour argument to na.value, and adds a reset argument to switch the styling back off. The package began as a first release derived from sgplot and has had three releases in roughly two years.
◆ Where it's heading
The work splits between palette design and keeping the styling composable. On the design side the sequential palette growing to five shades is driven by a specific reporting need rather than aesthetics, since quintiles are a standard unit in UK official statistics. On the mechanical side, the na.value rename was forced by ggplot2 v4.0.1, theme_af() now respects options set by an earlier use_afcharts() call, and a reset argument acknowledges that global styling needs an off switch. These are the problems a styling package hits once people use it inside larger documents.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued adjustment to ggplot2 v4, since the na.value rename is unlikely to be the only argument affected, and further palette work driven by the reporting formats government analysts actually publish. As a sibling to aftables in the same Analysis Function family, it is likely to keep tracking that guidance rather than setting its own direction.
rsofun
0.0INFRA · APIS
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
◆ Current state
rsofun wraps the P-model and BiomeE vegetation models in R with Fortran cores, covering photosynthesis, water balance and forest demography, plus Bayesian calibration. The 5.1.0 release is the first in the window to widen what the models simulate rather than reorganise them. Before it, the history is renaming, cost-function rewrites and output-format consistency work.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is from a calibration harness toward a model that can answer different questions: isotope fractionation now comes out of the P-model, BiomeE handles land use and land-use change, and forcing can be recycled when a simulation outruns its data. Version stamps are unreliable here, with a v5.0 tag carrying only a build fix and predating v4.4, so the arc reads better through content than through numbering.
◆ Prediction
The isotope work is explicitly unfinished, with a constant atmospheric signature standing in for daily d13c forcing, so the next likely step is accepting that as model input.
Alternatives to afcharts and rsofun
Other Infra & APIs 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 afcharts or rsofun.
ggalign
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
trackeR
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
See all afcharts alternatives → · See all rsofun alternatives →
Recent activity from afcharts and rsofun
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agoafchartsSequential palette reaches five shades for quintile data
- 10mo agorsofunCarbon isotope tracking and LULUC support across both models ⚡
- 1y agoafchartsNamespace and argument-passing fixes
- 1y agorsofunLM3-PPA renamed BiomeE; cost function and stress functions rewritten
- 1y agorsofunParallel make fix on the v5.0 tag
- 1y agoafchartsFirst release, derived from sgplot
- 2y agorsofuncnmodel 0.1 research snapshot tag
- 4y agorsofunFortran crash guards and consistent P-model variable names
- 4y agorsofunPublic release following a code refactor
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between afcharts and rsofun?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. afcharts and rsofun 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 afcharts better than rsofun?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. afcharts and rsofun 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to afcharts?
Top afcharts alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "afcharts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/afcharts for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rsofun?
Top rsofun alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rsofun alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rsofun for the full list with editorial commentary on each.