Choosing between rosbuild and catkin

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For a new project I recommend starting out with Groovy. It supports more recent OS releases, and you'll be able to run it with Ubuntu Precise LTS for quite a long time.

Even though much of the Groovy base was converted to catkin, nothing keeps you from using rosbuild on top of that. Catkin is harder to learn than rosbuild, but worthwhile in the long run. The catkin documentation is getting better, and still evolving. Here is the current Groovy ctakin how-to doc. You might find it helpful.

If your dependencies have all been catkinized, use catkin yourself. If not, you'll need to stick with rosbuild until catkin versions are available. Many more packages are being converted for Hydro, something to consider when making that decision.

Also, there is a new catkin_simple package which promises to provide most of the simplicity of rosbuild in a form that is compatible with catkin workspaces. It is still experimental and not fully documented, but you are welcome to give it a try.