News

0.1.0

Our first CRAN submission! This v0.1.0 release includes the following new features and updates:

License:

• Formally switch to Apache 2.0 license. (#141 9)

Breaking changes:

• To ensure consistent “dot.case” style for all tinyplot() function arguments, the following two arguments have been renamed (old => new):
  • par_restore => restore.par (note the change in word order too!)
  • ribbon_alpha => ribbon.alpha
  We don’t believe that these two arguments are much used in practice. So hopefully it will only have a negligible effect on existing tinyplot code in the wild, even though it is a breaking change. (#149 9)

New features:

• Gradient legends are now supported if a continuous variable is passed to by. Thanks to @zeileis for detailed feedback and advice around the default palette choice (a restricted version of the “viridis” palette), as well as StackOverflow user mnel, whose answer here provided the inspiration for the final implementation. (#122 9)
• Ordered factors now inherit a discrete sequential color palette (“viridis”) by default. Thanks to @zeileis for the suggestion. (#130 9)
• Support user-supplied polygons. (#127 9)
• Support for the lwd argument for adjusting line widths. Similar to pch, lty, etc. this arguments also accepts a “by” convenience keyword to automatically vary line widths by group. (#134 9)
• tpar() now accepts standard par() arguments in addition to the tinyplot-specific ones. This allows users to set or query graphical parameters via a single convenience function, instead having to invoke tpar and par separately. (#140 9)
  • As an aside, tpar() has gained some additional parameters for fine-grained control of global plot defaults, including grid, ribbon.alpha, and various file.* parameters (see next bullet point).
• Users can write plots directly to disk using the new file argument, alongside corresponding width and height arguments for output customization (both of which are defined in inches). For example, tinyplot(..., file = "~/myplot.png", width = 8, height = 5). This implementation relies on a simple internal wrapper around the traditional R external graphics devices like png(), pdf(), etc. But it may prove more convenient, since the current global graphics parameters held in (t)par() are carried over to the external device too and don’t need to be reset. Note that the appropriate device type is determined automatically by the file extension, which must be one of “.png”, “.jpg” (“.jpeg”), “.pdf”, or “.svg”. (#143 9)
• We have a shiny new tinyplot logo. (#148 9)
• The new get_saved_par() function can be used to retrieve the par settings from immediately before or immediately after the preceding tinyplot call. This function replaces some older (non-exported) internal functions that tinyplot was using to restore and control par environments. But it could also prove help to end users who are looking for additional ways to restore par settings after the fact. See ?get_saved_par for some examples. (#152

• tinyplot/plt gaina a new alpha = <numeric[0,1]> convenience argument for adding transparency to plot elements and colours. Example use: plt(rnorm(1e3), pch = 19, alpha = 0.3). (#129 9)
• Similar to the preceding news item, transparency can be added to (grouped) background fill by passing bg (or its alias, fill) a numeric in the range [0,1]. This feature has the same effect as bg = "by" except for the added transparency. Example use: plt(lat ~ long | depth, data = quakes, pch = 21, cex = 2, bg = 0.2). (#129

Bug fixes:

• Fixed bug that prevented tpar(facet.x = ...) args from being passed forward and set correctly. (#137 9)
• Fixed bug where custom legends weren’t working with type = "density". (#147

Internals:

• We no longer ship the vignette(s) with the built package. This helps to reduce the size of the installation tarball and also avoids some redundancy with the actual help documentation (since many of the examples are the same). Note that the vignettes are all still rendered and available online at the tinyplot website. (#135 9)
• Similarly, we anticipate skipping tests on CRAN since the large suite of test snapshots (images) held in inst/tinytest is pushing the install tarball over CRAN’s recommended 5 MB limit. Please note that local testing of the package requires adding the NOT_CRAN=TRUE environment variable to your .Renviron file (or, exporting it in your .bashrc/.zshrc/etc. dotfile if you prefer that approach). (#145 @vincentarelbundock & 9)
• Update some test snapshots to match slight changes in the way that R 4.4.0 calculates density grid coords. (#150 9)

0.0.5

IMPORTANT BREAKING CHANGE:

The package has been renamed to tinyplot. (#22 9)

This package renaming also incorporates the following function changes:

• plot2() is replaced by tinyplot() (or its shorthand alias plt()).
• par2() is replaced by tpar().

So, where you used to write…

library(plot2)
plot2(Sepal.Length ~ Petal.Length | Species, iris)

… you should now write:

library(tinyplot)
tinyplot(Sepal.Length ~ Petal.Length | Species, iris)

# Or, use the equivalent shorthand `plt` alias
plt(Sepal.Length ~ Petal.Length | Species, iris)

The package URLs have been updated accordingly:

• GitHub: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot
• Website: https://grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot
• R-universe: https://grantmcdermott.r-universe.dev/tinyplot

Many thanks to everyone who provided thoughtful feedback about this prospective name change, especially @zeileis and @vincentarelbundock for kicking off the discussion, as well as the 100+ participants who voted in the social media poll.

For more details about the rational underlying this renaming decision, please see the following GitHub comment, as well as the discussion that preceded it: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/plot2/issues/22#issuecomment-1928472754

0.0.4

Website:

We now have a dedicated website! (#80 @vincentarelbundock)

New features:

• Support for cex and bg (alias fill) arguments. The latter also permit the “by” convenience keyword similar to lty and pch. This is useful for plotting filled point characters (e.g., pch = 21), where you want a different colour for the fill and border. (#50, #75 9)
• Support for filled density plots. (#58 9)
• The new add argument allows new plot2 objects to be added to / on top of the existing plot window. (#60 9)
• Support for one-sided formulas, e.g. plot2(~ Temp | Month, airquality). (#62 9 and @zeileis)
• Support for plot2(x, type = "density") as an alternative to plot2(density(x)). Works for both the atomic and one-sided formula methods. (#66 9)
• Support for “area” type plots as a special case of ribbon plots. (#68

• Partial matching for palette keywords. (#74 9)
• plot2 gains a new facet argument for drawing faceted plots. Users can override the default square arrangement by passing the desired number of facet rows or columns to the companion facet.args helper function. Facets can be combined with by grouping, or used on their own. (#83, #91, #94, #96, #101, #103 9)
• Users can now control plot2-specific graphical parameters globally via the new par2() function (which is modeled on the base par() function). At the moment only a subset of global parameters, mostly related to legend and facet behaviour, are exposed in par2. But users can expect that more will be added in future releases. (#33, #94 9)

Bug fixes:

• Y-label correctly prints if a function was used for the atomic plot method, e.g. plot2(rnorm(100). (#52 etiennebacher)
• Ribbon plot types are now automatically ordered by the x variable. (#54

• Interval plots like ribbons, errorbars, and pointranges are now correctly plotted even if a y variable isn’t specified. (#54 9)
• Correctly label date-time axes. (#77 9 and @zeileis)
• Improved consistency of legend and facet margins across different plot types and placement, via the new lmar and fmar arguments of par2(). The default legend margin is par2(lmar = c(1,0, 0.1), which means that there is 1.0 line of padding between the legend and the plot region (inside margin) and 0.1 line of padding between the legend and edge of the graphics device (outer margin). Similarly, the default facet padding is par2(fmar = c(1,1,1,1), which means that there is a single line of padding around each side of the individual facets. Users can override these defaults by passing numeric vectors of the appropriate length to par2(). For example, par2(lmar = c(0,0.1) would shrink the inner gap between the legend and plot region to zero, but leave the small outer gap to outside of the graphics device unchanged. (#94 9)
• Fix bug where grid wasn’t auto-expanding correctly for area plots. (#92

0.0.3

Breaking changes:

• Colour palettes are now controlled via a single palette argument that unifies the old palette and (deprecated) palette.args arguments. In addition, the default palette for small groups has been changed from “Okabe-Ito” to “R4”. (#31 and #32 9)
• Legends are now controlled via a single legend argument that unifies the previous (deprecated) legend.position and legend.args arguments. This change also enables several enhancements over the old legend behaviour; see below. (#34 9)

New features:

• Add support for the argument log. (#15 @etiennebacher)
• Add support for grouped density plots. (#18 9)
• Add support for (both grouped and non-grouped) “c”, “h”, “s”, and “S” types. (#26 9)
• Both the pch and lty arguments now accept a “by” convenience keyword for automatically adjusting plot characters and line types by groups. (#28

• Add outside (“!”) placement support for remaining legend keywords, e.g. “top!”, “left!”, “topright!”, etc. Users also gain finer control over many other aspects of the legend via the new unified legend argument, including changing labels, turning of the legend title, and so on. (#34 9)
• Add support for "pointrange", "errobar", and "ribbon" plot types. (#35 @vincentarelbundock, #40 and #46 9)
• Support grid = TRUE as an alternative to grid = grid(). (#43

Bug fixes:

• Setting par(pch=X) globally is now respected. (#20 9)
• Fix x-axis scale/index when y is NULL. (#24 9)
• Setting a global palette, e.g. palette("ggplot2") is now respected. (#44

0.0.2

Breaking changes:

• Legend defaults have been changed. The default position is now “right!” and drawn without a border, i.e. bty = “n” (#14 by 9).

New features:

• Allow users to specify different pch, lty, and col types per group (#5 and #11 by @vincentarelbundock).

Bug fixes:

• Adding further elements to plot2 now works (#13 by 9, thanks @karoliskoncevicius for reporting).

Internals:

• Better formula parsing for plot2.formula (#8 by @zeileis).
• Unit testing scaffolding based on tinysnaphot (#11 by @vincent).

Project:

• @vincentarelbundock and @zeileis have joined the project as core contributors. 🎉

0.0.1

• Initial release on GitHub.