I think a good place to get some idea about what a toolkit's capabilities are is to look at their sample models page/list, especially if you have a defined, targeted endpoint (like a thesis). To my knowledge there is not an objective comprehensive review comparing one versus another, especially for a novice, with respect to the question you ask. There is a page on Swarmwiki that does list some comparisons http://www.swarm.org/wiki/Software_Reviews
but they don't address what you seem to be asking.
Look at the homepages
Look at the tutorials and sample models.
There are two questions:
1) Can I get started? Comprehensibility of the tutorial/samples gives you insight into this; it stands to reason that if you can't understand the tutorial then you will have a hard time. This question is the important one to do what Markus suggested in overcoming the activation energy with a modeling project; the sooner you have "something" that even vaguely looks like what you want the more likely you are going to be productive in the long run.
2) Will it do everything that I need to do? I would suggest that unless you have an extremely detailed plan of a particular question that you want answered you are not really going to know this until you get started. I would suggest that for a novice, the primary limiting factor is going to be their own ability/facility at modeling/programming (and these are different things) rather than a limitation of the particular toolkit. Again, the sample models will give you an idea, also the projects discussed on the various message boards will give you an idea of what others are doing and the scope of their projects. You should be able to get the gist of this information without having to learn the entire language/syntax.
Gary
"
E.g. start with
something like NetLogo and use it until it stops being useful.
"
What I need the review (which I imagine to be out there somewhere) to tell me, before I invest in a toolkit, is when e.g. NetLogo is going to stop being useful, specifically if it is going to stop being useful before I finish my thesis.
For myself, I did finish my thesis (thanks), but I put so much energy into the system that I finally began using (JAWAS). If I had had to start over with another toolkit because of the limitations of the one I chose... Well, such was my fear at the time. Now I see that switching toolkits might not be so daunting as it seemed then.
It would be nice if someone familiar with several toolkits could review what limits each. Can anyone suggest such a review?
Rob
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