Re: [Swarm-Modelling] Good reviews with the info the greenhorn needs?

[glen e. p. ropella]

Rob Bowers wrote:
> 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.

There's a flaw in the setup.  A toolkit will _never_ stop being useful
until/unless that particular _user_ stops finding uses for it.  In fact,
the usefulness of a given tool is all in the eye of the user.

> 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?

Yes, it would be nice.  But, users don't agree on the _core_
requirements for the tool kits.  Any individual who expresses an opinion
is biased (even if they don't intend to be).  When considering tools in
a space where there are disagreements about the core requirements, those
biases are meaningful and hard to puncture.

So, even if it (currently) requires more overhead, a person picking a
tool kit has to sit down and examine her own requirements and then ask
targeted questions of the tools (or the tools' maintainers).  She then
has to be skeptical and critical of the answers to those questions and,
preferably, do some practical work with each "finalist" to determine
which tool to finally invest in.

Short of that, the user just has to be willing to recognize when it's
time to dump one tool for another _and_ actually do the dumping and
re-investing in the new tool.

The first iteration of such is _always_ hard and the later iterations
are always easier.

ABM will settle in the coming years into a standard set of core
requirements.  But, we're not there yet.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella, 971-219-3846, http://tempusdictum.com
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you
must have somebody to divide it with. -- Mark Twain