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Comparison · Infra & APIs
contagionchannels vs legendry
A side-by-side editorial comparison of contagionchannels and legendry — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
contagionchannels vs legendry: at a glance
What is contagionchannels?
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
What is legendry?
A ggplot2 extension quietly turning axes and legends into a place where other plots can live.
legendry extends ggplot2's guide system, letting axes and legends be composed from primitives and keys rather than accepted as given. The most recent release added guides for user-defined keys, upset matrices, arbitrary symbol placement, freeform annotations, and side-plots attached to an axis, plus a run-length-encoded range key and subtitles on custom axes. Between feature releases the package ships small patches, several of them tracking ggplot2's own changes.
contagionchannels vs legendry: editorial side-by-side
contagionchannels
0.0INFRA · APIS
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
◆ Current state
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
◆ Where it's heading
There is no product trajectory to read here yet, only a submission one, and it is unusually well documented — each entry names the reviewer or check that prompted it and quotes the feedback verbatim. That transparency is the one signal available: the maintainer treats review rounds as releases worth publishing rather than squashing. Any judgement about direction will have to wait for a release that changes the package rather than its metadata.
◆ Prediction
With CRAN acceptance secured, the next release should be the first to carry actual methodological content; until one appears, there is not enough in these entries to say where the package is heading.
legendry
0.0INFRA · APIS
A ggplot2 extension quietly turning axes and legends into a place where other plots can live.
◆ Current state
legendry extends ggplot2's guide system, letting axes and legends be composed from primitives and keys rather than accepted as given. The most recent release added guides for user-defined keys, upset matrices, arbitrary symbol placement, freeform annotations, and side-plots attached to an axis, plus a run-length-encoded range key and subtitles on custom axes. Between feature releases the package ships small patches, several of them tracking ggplot2's own changes.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward treating a guide as a rendering slot rather than a label strip. Dendrogram scales arrived in 0.2.0 with a matching axis guide; the newest release adds side-plots and upset symbol matrices to the same position. Each of these puts real graphical content where an axis used to be, and each one ships with a key function so the composition stays user-controllable. Note that this feed's order is unreliable: 0.2.1 was published eight months after 0.2.4 and minutes before 0.3.0, so neither version numbers nor timestamps indicate release order here.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of pairing each new guide with a matching key function is consistent enough that the next feature release will likely follow it again; the recurring forwards-compatibility patches also suggest another ggplot2-tracking release whenever upstream moves.
Alternatives to contagionchannels and legendry
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 contagionchannels or legendry.
WPML
WPML made machine translation the default, and its point releases keep chasing WordPress and page builders.
forestploter
A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.
ggInterval
Interval-valued data plotting, spending 2026 making its function names and examples survive CRAN.
rgm
A microbiome network model that got itself un-archived by deleting the dependency that killed it.
tidyaudit
Pipeline provenance for tidyverse workflows, recording what changed at each step without keeping the data.
See all contagionchannels alternatives → · See all legendry alternatives →
Recent activity from contagionchannels and legendry
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agolegendryFive new guides, including side-plots and upset matrices on axes
- 3mo agolegendryPatch release: guide placement, sizing and gizmo key fixes
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.3 — first CRAN release
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.2: switch arXiv reference in DESCRIPTION to canonical DOI form
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.1: address CRAN reviewer feedback (License) + add arXiv reference
- 11mo agolegendryCRAN fix for undeclared S7 imports
- 11mo agolegendryColourbar sizing fix; sandwich guides gain label suppression
- 1y agolegendryForwards-compatibility patch for an upcoming ggplot2 release
- 1y agolegendryDendrogram scales and axis guide, plus a circle size guide
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between contagionchannels and legendry?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. contagionchannels and legendry 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 contagionchannels better than legendry?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. contagionchannels and legendry 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 contagionchannels?
Top contagionchannels alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "contagionchannels alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/contagionchannels for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to legendry?
Top legendry alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "legendry alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/legendry for the full list with editorial commentary on each.