Thanks - that means a lot to us, because that is precisely what we aim to achieve (not least the "huge conglomerate" part
) Indeed, having an active interaction with our users is integral to constantly increasing the quality and user-friendliness of the software. If a feature is hard to understand, we should make it easier.
As we proceed further into 2012, you can expect to see ATK develop into a true platform based on plugins which users themselves can develop. So, we hope this will create an even larger community around the software where people will contribute their plugins for the benefit of the whole community.
These plugins - you would call them "Apps" in the iPhone/Android world, and actually the idea is very similar: if you are missing some functionality, add it yourself, and share your contribution with others!
The first iteration of this will be in 12.2, coming out in Feb/Mar 2012, with a completely new Builder (with plugins). There is also plugin support for generating input files for other codes, and importing custom file formats. Later in 2012 we extend this to "analysis", i.e. plotting and data handling, so can e.g. import a density computed with VASP and plot it in VNL. Also job control will be based on plugins, allowing you to submit jobs on a remote cluster directly from the GUI. And so on!
We truly look forward to supporting the user community for many years to come. And rest assumed, if we do grow large, we will still strive to offer the best user support in the world!
Thanks again!
