Our 10th anniversary of compiler development celebration wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t include the first customer who bought mikroPascal for PIC back in 2004.
Pictured above: Compilers section on MikroElektronika’s website in 2004, from the web archives
You had a chance to read a lot about our compilers during May. We reminisced on how they came to be. Our blogger friends shared their thoughts. EETimes published a review of mikroC for ARM for the occasion.
More than words, what testifies to our compilers' worth is the work done by the community. We curated some of the best online tutorials and books. Closer to home, we handed out Libstock awards to developers we felt contributed the most there.
Then, as the celebratory month came to a close, our thoughts went back to the very beginning again. We wanted to get in touch with the earliest of early adopters, the first customer who purchased a full license from us.
In a way, it all starts from that first customer, and we wanted to show our gratitude by offering him or her any single item from our catalogue as a gift.
We went digging through our records, and eventually found contact details of Mr. Polan Roland from Budapest, Hungary. We had to cold call him on his phone because the e-mail address we had was outdated. At first he mistook our guy for a telemarketer but we came to an understanding. This is what he had to say in an E-mail exchange afterwards:
Polan:
Your telephone call suprised me very much. At first I thought it was a telemarketing agent, but the surprise turned out to be a positive one. I've never received a more pleasant call from a stranger. After all, there aren't many people who could say that they were the first users of something that would become such a successful product.
Back in 2004 my friend and colleague Samuel Szakacs and I decided to develop a home alarm system based on PIC microcontrollers. Since Samuel was to do most of the coding, and he was at home with Pascal, we went online searching for a suitable compiler. It’s an incredible coincidence that you just released mikroPascal exactly when we needed such a tool.
We tried it, liked it, exceeded the demo limit, and got in touch with you and purchased the license.
Samuel adds:
The home alarm system was successful, and after it we continued developing with mikroPascal. For instance:
- An infinite zone number industrial alarm system
- Security camera system
- Fully operational cable manufacturing machine control
- When Samuel became a father, a baby monitor unit
- reconnaissance Quadcopter
- Currently we’re developing a magnetic therapy device
As you can see, mikroPascal turned out to be very valuable to me, and I use the compiler to this day. It was a very noble gesture to reach out to us as your first customers. we appreciate all the work you’ve done, and wish you success in the future!
_____
Thank you too Polan and Samuel. It would’ve been slightly disappointing to learn that our first customer stopped using his mikroPascal copy long ago. Discovering the opposite is a great compliment to our work.
So on we go. The 10th Anniversary of Compiler Development Anniversary month behind us, we turn our sights back to the future, delivering products and solutions that are able to serve you well even a decade after you buy them.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika