ggdist: Visualizations of distributions and uncertainty

New features and enhancements:

• Support for non-numeric distributions in stat_slabinterval() and stat_dotsinterval(), including dist_categorical(), dist_bernoulli(), and the upcoming posterior::rvar_factor() type. (#108)
• Various improvements to dotplot layout in geom_dotsinterval():
  • new layout = "hex" allows a hexagonal circle-packing style layout (#161).
  • new mechanism for smoothing dotplots using the smooth parameter, including smooth = "bounded" / smooth = "unbounded" (for "density dotplots") and smooth = "discrete" / smooth = "bar" (for improved layout of large-n discrete distributions). (#161)
  • a better bin/dot-nudging algorithm using constrained optimization (#163)
  • new overlaps = "keep" option disables bin/dot nudging in "bin", "hex", and "weave" layouts. This means layout = "weave" with overlaps = "keep" will yield exact dot positions. (#161)
  • The "weave" layout now works properly with side = "both"
  • fixed binning artifacts when there is high density on the edges, particularly right edges (#144)
  • use a max binwidth of 1 for discrete distributions (#159)
  • new overflow = "compress" allows layouts to be compressed to fit into the geom bounds if a user-specified binwidth would otherwise cause the dots to exceed the geom bounds. (#162)
• Two new shortcut geoms for geom_dotsinterval(): geom_swarm() and geom_weave(). Both can be used to quickly create "beeswarm"-like plots.
• A new "mirrored" scale for the side aesthetic, scale_side_mirrored(), makes it easier to create mirrored slabs and dotplots. (#142)
• Custom density estimators can now be used with stat_slabinterval() via the density argument, including a new bounded density estimator (density_bounded()). (#113)
• Following the split between size and linewidth aesthetics in ggplot2 3.4, the following aesthetics have been updated (#138):
  • interval_size is now linewidth
  • slab_size is now slab_linewidth
  • in geom_slab(), geom_dots(), and geom_lineribbon(), size is now linewidth
• A new experimental mini domain-specific language for probability expressions in ggdist stats: the Pr_() and p_() functions can be used to generate after_stat() expressions in terms of ggdist computed variables; e.g. aes(thickness = !!Pr_(X <= x)) maps the CDF of the distribution onto the thickness aesthetic; aes(thickness = !!p_(x)) maps the PDF onto the thickness aesthetic. (#160)
• Several function families in ggdist now use "currying" (automatic partial function application). These function families partially apply themselves until all non-optional arguments have been supplied: point_interval(), smooth_..., and density_.... See help("automatic-partial-functions").
• Performance improvements for point_interval() on grouped data frames. (#154)

Documentation:

• Uses of stat() have been replaced with after_stat() to be consistent with the deprecation of stat() in ggplot2 3.4.