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Comparison · Infra & APIs
Cobbler vs ipeaplot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Cobbler and ipeaplot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Cobbler vs ipeaplot: at a glance
What is Cobbler?
A backport branch kept alive for downstreams, with the main line nowhere in sight.
Every release in Cobbler's visible history describes itself the same way: backports from main to make Cobbler more stable for the community. The 3.3.x line has absorbed real work under that framing — collection indices, lazy loading, new XML-RPC endpoints — but none of it originates here. The most recent item is a 3.2.3 build carrying the CVE-2024-47533 fix to an older branch, with its Fixed and Added sections left as literal TBD placeholders.
What is ipeaplot?
An institutional chart theme whose recent releases are all vignette repair.
ipeaplot supplies Ipea's house style to ggplot2 — theme_ipea(), matching colour and fill scales, and export helpers that write the formats the institute's publications need. The feature line has been quiet since October, when save_ipeaplot() consolidated the format-specific savers. Both July releases exist to get the package building again, not to change it.
Cobbler vs ipeaplot: editorial side-by-side
Cobbler
0.0INFRA · APIS
A backport branch kept alive for downstreams, with the main line nowhere in sight.
◆ Current state
Every release in Cobbler's visible history describes itself the same way: backports from main to make Cobbler more stable for the community. The 3.3.x line has absorbed real work under that framing — collection indices, lazy loading, new XML-RPC endpoints — but none of it originates here. The most recent item is a 3.2.3 build carrying the CVE-2024-47533 fix to an older branch, with its Fixed and Added sections left as literal TBD placeholders.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a stabilization branch serving downstream packagers rather than a product advancing on its own. The work that does land splits cleanly into three buckets: distribution coverage (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux, RHEL9, openSUSE and SLE signatures), API surface for integrators, and security backports. 3.3.3 flagged dump_vars as the replacement for get_blended_data as of 3.4.0 — a version that has not appeared in any release since.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued single-purpose backports to 3.3.x and older branches as CVEs surface; the entries give no indication of when or whether the 3.4.0 work these releases keep deferring to will ship.
ipeaplot
0.0INFRA · APIS
An institutional chart theme whose recent releases are all vignette repair.
◆ Current state
ipeaplot supplies Ipea's house style to ggplot2 — theme_ipea(), matching colour and fill scales, and export helpers that write the formats the institute's publications need. The feature line has been quiet since October, when save_ipeaplot() consolidated the format-specific savers. Both July releases exist to get the package building again, not to change it.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has been converging on a smaller, more uniform surface: separate save_eps() and save_pdf() helpers gave way to one save_ipeaplot() covering vector and raster formats with sensible defaults, and the Frutiger font dependency was dropped for a default sans-serif. What consumes releases now is downstream breakage — two consecutive patches in ten days, the second traced to geobr, both in vignettes rather than package code.
◆ Prediction
The palette line has grown one colour set at a time and is the most likely place for the next addition, but nothing in these entries commits to it. On current evidence the near term is more compatibility patching against the geobr and ggplot2 packages the vignettes depend on.
Alternatives to Cobbler and ipeaplot
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 Cobbler or ipeaplot.
mpactr
mpactr spent two spring releases normalizing case in metadata after users kept tripping on it.
surveytidy
surveytidy taught every dplyr verb to operate on a whole collection of surveys at once.
surveycore
surveycore declared its API stable with every survey design type covered.
PEIMAN2
PEIMAN2 cut its annotation database loose from its release cycle without breaking CRAN.
prospectr
prospectr spent its biggest release in years fixing spectra it had been quietly mangling.
See all Cobbler alternatives → · See all ipeaplot alternatives →
Recent activity from Cobbler and ipeaplot
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoipeaplotVignette fix for geobr breakage
- 1mo agoCobblerCobbler 3.2.3 backports the CVE-2024-47533 admin API fix
- 1mo agoipeaplotPatch for a vignette build error
- 10mo agoipeaplotsave_ipeaplot() unifies vector and raster export
- 1y agoipeaplotPink palette added; axis break and categorical Y-axis fixes
- 1y agoCobblerCobbler 3.3.7 closes an admin-API authentication bypass
- 1y agoipeaplotFrutiger dropped for a default sans-serif; save_pdf() added
- 2y agoCobblerCobbler 3.3.6 adds EFI support to buildiso
- 2y agoCobblerCobbler 3.3.5 adds collection indices and lazy loading
- 2y agoipeaplottheme_ipea, colour and fill scales, save_eps on CRAN
- 2y agoCobblerCobbler 3.3.4 extends packaging to Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12
- 4y agoCobblerCobbler 3.3.3 adds resolved-value XML-RPC endpoints for Uyuni
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Cobbler and ipeaplot?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Cobbler and ipeaplot 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 Cobbler better than ipeaplot?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Cobbler and ipeaplot 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 Cobbler?
Top Cobbler alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Cobbler alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cobbler for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ipeaplot?
Top ipeaplot alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ipeaplot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ipeaplot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.