Questioning ICT Myths


Posted on April 24, 2006  /  219 Comments

At an ICT policy consultation meeting in Dhaka, organized by the APC (http://www.apc.org/), two participants prompted a much needed reality check for a room full ICT4D professionals. Mridul Chowdhury, a research affiliate at the IT Group in the Berkman Centre, Harvard University also a director of D.Net, kick-started the discussion with a presentation that questioned some of the key assumptions that that form the premise to much work in the ICT4D space. For instance, a lack of community information can be resolved by building a telecenter; poor governance can be solved by introducing ICT systems into governments; a lack of market information can be solved by building e-commerce portals. Chowdhury stressed that certain underlying factors had to be taken care of first; the information gaps that we’re really trying to solve need to be identified; the governance process needs to be reformed before throwing ICTs at it, etc. ICTs cannot solve all the world’s problems, and before one tries to throw ICTs at it, one should really assess whether ICTs are really the optimal solution. Nalaka Gunewardena, Director at TVE Asia Pacific continued the discussion in his aptly titled presentation, ‘Rhetoric vs. reality.’ He raised a pressing question: do good policies necessarily imply good implementation? His response to this was not necessarily, and often, not. The overarching issue is that unless certain conditions are fulfilled and critical issues resolved (for instance infrastructure bottlenecks), ICTs alone will not solve the problem at hand (even if it is at all the optimal solution) and even good policies will not achieve the desired outcomes. It therefore appears that many of the common assumptions, which are the premise of many ICT4D projects, to which much hope and funds are pinned, need to be scrutinized if development goals are to be reached.

219 Comments


  1. Clearly infrastructure implementation requires a proper and adequate needs assessment – ideally drawing upon input from a range of stakeholders. In the same vein, after implementation, evaluation and ongoing project assessment mechanisms need to be in place to ensure that objectives were met – and continue to be met by the project or programme.

    The Hungarian Telecottage movement provides an excellent example of a programme that introduces telecentre infrastructure within the context of overall community needs – some of which are addressed by ICTs, some of which are addressed by the telecottage personal or simply the fact of organizing community resources in one location.

    Likewise, ideal e-governance / e-society programmes are introduced in stages – with ICT infrastructure targeting specific bad practices (corruption, graft, incompetence) and promoting good ones, such as the intention to extend the reach of government services.

    But as noted, introducing e-commerce in Cuba isn’t going to result in a whole lot of cigar sales in the US.

    I really don’t think there is any big myth about the value of ICTs or ICT4D – the crux of the problem is adequate programme and project design.

  2. The dismal failure of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lankan to deliver the goods, even after many years of its operation, to meet the anticipations at its ceremonial inception, can be largely attributed to the pitiable role played by its current Chairman.

    This is an aged Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor beyond the age of seventy and a serious diabetics patient. It is very clear given his health conditions he should be best rest at home and do some social work.

    He has been a bright academic in his younger days, no doubt, but as any medical student would tell you the memory cells start failing at the rate of one percent per every year after the age of just thirty. So definitely an elderly and ailing person cannot give leadership to a national level programme of the size of E Sri Lanka. It is high time that this Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor should go home and start doing something religious for the other world, he would visit sooner than later, after respectfully passing the baton to a dynamic and young leader. He is drawing a comfortable pension from the university and he has no family obligations. So there is no need for him to do a job. Unfortunately this power hungry and cash crazy Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor continue to stay beyond his capabilities.

    Information and Communication Technology is not the science of the old. It is the science of the young. Michael Dell built a multi million company when he was just 32 years old and Bill Gates wrote Windows at the age of 30 years. The Yahoo founders were in their twenties when they did. It is quite possible Sri Lanka is the only country in the world that this type of old and ailing man controls the interests of the computer industry at the national level while the talented young were blocked from getting involved in the Information and Communication technology activities.

    This man is perpetually jealous and feel threatened by the young professionals in the IT industry. (It is a different question why someone at his level should feel threatened by people so young and so junior to him.) He is jealous of so many other bright young professionals in the filed and done everything possible to stop them. This is one of the key reasons why no development in the Information and Communication Technology filed in Sri Lanka. Who wants to develop a field when such align and old avatars blocking every move they take? Who wants to join a programme, when the objectives of the programme are not to do anything good for the society or the country but to build ones own image?

    With pure jealousy this man has blocked so many reputed IT companies moving forward. It is a surprise that companies like Virtusa survived in such an environment. Perhaps it is because Virtusa aimed at the international market and not the local market. This Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor seems to think that any local IT company who has to do a project in Sri Lanka has to give a chunk to him. Otherwise his vicious senile mind finds some way of ruing the opportunities for the domestic companies and pave way for a foreign company. He does not feel threatened with foreign companies because they are outsiders. Only locals worry him.

    This pathetic person is jealous about anyone who wants to achieve something in ones life. He thinks the sole purpose of his creation is to stop anyone else achieving their ambitions. Like the typical Sri Lankans who perpetually suffer in the guardless pit in the hell, he cunningly pulls the leg of anyone who wants to go up. He does not like other people taking patents for their work. He hates to see anyone taking a patent and does his best to stop that.

    Number of patents obtained in a year is an indication that measures the intellectual capacity of a country. Till we get rid of this kind of people, it is difficult to think Sri Lanka will ever be treated by anyone as a country of adequate intellectual capacity.

    According to the Tender guidelines any government agency in Sri Lanka should follow the Executive head or the Chairman cannot be a part of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) of a deal. This is to prevent any influences to the TEC either political or otherwise. TEC should consist of people only drawn based on their technical capabilities. So it is highly questionable why this Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor so badly wants to be a part of the TEC in a USD 10-15 million deal. Why cannot he just let the technical people give their own decision on the bids than him interfering at the level of TEC?

    Before joining the Information and Communication Technology Agency, this pathetic soul was one of the worst critics of the E Sri Lanka project. Not a single aspect about Information and Communication Agency, from the salaries to projects missed his harsh criticism. These came in many different ways. Many a time they came through the press, through his pal journalists going the extra mile. The most modern technologies like internet and email too were not spared. These also went to the level of mud slinging on the basis of religion, when it comes to qualifications. Please note, very conveniently this man was born a Sinhalese Buddhist. Probably this is the only ‘qualification’ now he has to do what he does and earn a sizable salary from the World Bank. After the government changed he forgot all that and went after the powers to grab the available opportunity by both hands. Now he leads the same institution he once criticized so harshly, without changing anything. It is surprising how people change.

    This is the high time the Sri Lankan Information and Communication Technology professionals realize that nothing worthwhile can happen to the local IT industry unless bottlenecks like these are removed and the leadership in the Information and Communication Technology industry is given to young and dynamic professionals. May be Viagra can make some things work, but even Viagra cannot make old and ailing serpentine characters like this power hungry man any useful to the country.

  3. Quote “He does not like other people taking patents for their work. He hates to see anyone taking a patent and does his best to stop that.”– unquote

    This is true. My patent is still pending. Since the inspectors does not have a very high knowledge in ICT they seek advise from Emeritus Professor .

    After reading the contents of the patents Hon Emeritus Professor and his group understands that they had missed the bus.

    When any other person comes out with an idea which is the solution to a specific problem in the field of technology which is an intellectual property and Intellectual property act No 36 of 2003 protect that individual. Hon Emeritus Professor nagate it.

    Poor inspector after the visit to Hon Emeritus Professor writes a negative report. Some times even gets a trip to an IT exhibition abroad. Then quit the job leaving the file on the table.

    ——————

    Quote “”poor governance can be solved by introducing ICT systems into governments; a lack of market information can be solved by building e-commerce portals.””unquote

    This is correct , BUT in Sri Lanka you cannot do this in Sinhala or Tamil. Simple reason is we does not have a proper Sinhala Alphabet registered in the SLSI or in Unicode

    The unicode for Sinhala is incorrect and incomplete. If you can read sinhala please visit http://www.akuru.org/images/rawaya2.jpg.

    I have given the solution for the problem. http://www.akuru.org
    This is not a solution only for Sinhala but it is the solution for the whole indic languages which was derived from Brahmi characters.
    http://www.akuru.org/developsinhla2.htm

    For the past five years I am making own presentation after presentation, all fall into the ears of Hon Emeritus Professor and his team. They do not accept the errors and blunders they had done even after proved by me and the public without any reasonable doubt.

    In Sri Lanka we cannot use the local language Sinhala in computer. We cannot transfer data using the local language Sinhala. Data is not not compatable.

    Simply because Hon Emeritus Professor need to study at grade one.
    The problem is very simple. Lay out the matrix for all sinhala characters. Only I have done it ISBN 955-98975-0-0 (Contents do have Copyright areas & Patent pending areas©2000-2006)

    Hon Emeritus Professor could not do it because he is an Emeritus Professor.

    Since I have done it he blocks me. The SLSI 1134 has to be corrected based on my work.

    This are the facts your comments are welcome!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

    read the following links

    http://groups.google.com/group/Sinhala-Unicode?lnk=li

    http://groups.google.com/group/SinhalaUserGroup?lnk=li

    http://groups.google.com/group/Anti-Sinhala-Unicode?lnk=li

  4. [The unicode for Sinhala is incorrect and incomplete.]

    It is interesting to note how just one person keeps on spreading this myth. Perhaps he has reasons which are linked to patents. Perhaps he has plans to earn millions of dollars which he cannot get from NGOs. Unicode on the other hand, has no patent and everyone can use it freely.

    It is a myth to say Unicode cannot support some Sinhala characters. Unicode can represent any Sinhala character, even the ones written in early pali ola leaves. It is completely incorrect to say Unicode cannot represent some Sinhala characters.

    This debate should now be put to rest. There is no point arguing for anymore. It has been proved beyond any doubt that Unicode can be used very well to represent all Sinhala characters. Unicode is an international standard and it has been accepted by all the countries. Only Sri Lanka cannot resist accepting it. There is definitely no need for another character code, because Unicode is capable supporting any Sinhala or Tamil characters.

    Sinhala alphabet is the property of all of us in Sinhale. One person cannot take a patent and restricts its usage. We do not care whether it is Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse. We cannot let anyone selling our national heritage. Sinhala language is free. Nobody can sell it, like they plan to sell the water or Sigiriya sometime back. We will not anyone sell Sinhala language.

    What the learned Professor Samaranayake has done is to firmly restrict anyone taking the patent for the Unicode. That is why they have gathered together and sling mud at him. A person like Prof. Samaranayake should be treated a national hero and be praised for his work done for the nation. Only those who could not earn big money by taking patents to our national heritage and the Catholic mafia keep on ranting like this.

    It is also surprising why this Catholic mafia keeps on pointing their fingers at Prof. Samaranayake, when there are so many crooks responsible for cheating the government money in terms of incredible salaries. Prof. Samaranayaka is a national hero and we all should praise him for what he has done for the nation, in spite of all the dirty mud slinging from Catholic mafia.

  5. 1.
    Quote “Unicode can represent any Sinhala character” unquote

    Please give the code point for sinhala character “DU” from the unicode chart (www.unicode.org/charts). Also two code points for the “paksha” “kayanna badi shayanna”
    With Sinhala unicode registered in SLSI 1134 cannot write the name of our President.

    eg : Ayanna = 0D85 – Sinhala Letter ayanna (this is a unicode code point)
    likewise define “DU” and “kayanna badi shayanna” I accept only in the above form and only from the unicode chart registered with unicode.org

    2.
    Quote “Unicode is an international standard”unquote
    Nobody is telling unicode is wrong. I point out and others point out what SLSI 1134 registered with unicode is incorrect and incomplete Sinhala characters and correct this error.

    3.
    Quote”Sinhala alphabet is the property of all of us in Sinhale”unquote
    Can you write the full sinhala alphabet? Can you send me a name of a printed book or a photocopy of a page where all each and every sinhala characters are displayed other than my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    For Tamil Language if you take the “demala eka kiyaveem potha’ Tamil book one page 48 and 49 gives the matrix of all tamil characters. Give the sinhala equivalent if you can!!!!

    4.
    Quote”What the learned Professor Samaranayake has done is to firmly restrict anyone taking the patent ” unquote

    So far I had no legal document to link Hon Emeritus Professor to patent office. Now I have one and I will send you summons to appear in Courts. The summons will reach you via LIRNEasia as you have not identified yourself properly. This will be done if & when the time arrive.

    5.
    Quote “the Catholic mafia ” unquote

    First you & Emeritus Professor will have to give a public apology for using the above term.

    The Sinhala English dictionery was published in 1830 by Rev B Clough.
    He is not a SInhala Buddhist. This was the only SINHALA ENGLISH Dictionery we had for a long period of time. Even today we do not have a proper SInhala -English dictionery & the Sinhala enclylopedia is incomplete.

    Christains Missionaries were the people who brought the first printing machine to Sri Lanka made all Sinhala lead characters to print the Bible. Using these letter press characters all the other Sinhala Buddhist books came to alive in form of paper printed books.

    As far as I know The CEO of ICTA is also a non buddhist.

    You guys are the people who make the country divide. Write someting without any knowledge and harm the harmony among the Nation.

    I have a claen history for 3 generations. I can prove my family roots up to 1897 and byond.
    I have the blood and proper roots for a National Hero.Therefore I need not have additional credentials. I am not scared of people like you. Just because I have the name “DONALD” I am not a Christian. We are from South with proper family roots. I studied under Mr Arisen Ahubodu. He thought me my Sinhala. I had written articles to his magazine “EDIYA” . I can call myself a proper “Helaya’ than you.

    You guys are so cowards without a proper names and a back bone to do a postiing to make Emeritus Professor a national Hero.

    Yes he is a Natioanal Hero who distroyed the Language Sinhala.

    If you are a buddhist and been to “Daham pasala” You have been thought if you distroy a national language the place where you go will be “satara apaya” Emeritus Professor has just got his entry visa to the “satara apaya”!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  6. This is a very interesting debate. What I cannot understand is what religion does in a debate on ICTs. Have we become so obsessed with religion that we cannot discuss any other topic without the religion getting involved?

    We also like to hear the voice of the Professor concerned about the comments made above.

  7. Let us please have a decent debate without slinging mud at people. Let us focus on the important problems that need solutions instead of wasting energy on personal attacks.

  8. Yes, as MageChintana says, it is really tragic that no public discussion in Sri Lanka can progress beyond a certain point without invoking religion. The lowest depths to which otherwise intellectual discussions sink is when the religion of individuals is raised, either in defense or offence.

    This is the sign of a really backward, primitive society, where everything descends — sooner or later — to faith and belief systems.

    I’m not against religions or faiths, but am opposed to them being used as crutches for poor arguments, or as ineffective weapons against opponents.

    Religion is the last refuge of the scoundrel! Going by that dictum, Sri Lanka is teeming with scoundrels…

  9. What Yudishdara says about the sad state of ICT in Sri Lanka is entirely true. The sector and industry have been held to ransom by an unscrupulous, wily old man who has collected too many IOUs from too many influential people across the political spectrum.

    But, despicable as this emeritus is, he only epitomises a deep rooted malady in Sri Lankan ICT and other intellectual, or scientific, or technological circles: no one challenges the unfair, unjust and corrupt domination of entire sectors, for decades on end, by a handful of ageing and ailing dinosaurs.

    We have seen the same thing happen in engineering, wildlife conservation, distance education, public health and several other fields. And it is not confined to technical or scientific disciplines either. The gura-knows-best syndrome is widely prevalent in the humanities as well. These academics remind us of an irreverent rhyme that generations of British school boys were fond of saying:
    I am the master of this college
    What I don’t know isn’t knowledge.
    For origins of this, see:
    http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/cgi/content/full/11/3/188

    In this day and age, it is incredible that such things are allowed to happen in this Smart Island of Lanka, and it is hugely depressing that younger professionals give in to such domination without any apparent protest. Perhaps they know how vicious these older professors can be — how they can ruin careers and drive more talented younger people away for good.

    Finally, while I admire what he has to say, I have to caution Donald not to get emotional and certainly not to invoke his religion and pedigree in a discussion that have no place for either. He has lived and worked outside Sri Lanka long enough to know that only in this potty little island can arguments be seemingly won on such petty points as one’s race and religion.

    If you guys want to take on the nasty old number now heading ICTA, you need to be cool, calculating and very resourceful just like the emeritus is. Emotional outbursts will not take you anywhere. Take this well meant advice from a friend.

  10. First I must thank “Cheelanka” for the valuble advise.

    I had to give part of the pedigree and the religion becuase “HELAYA” was hitting at Christians.
    That is the normal tendency in Sri Lanka either hit at Christians or Hindus or Muslims when they themselves are at wrong. This create lots of misunderstanding and damage the harmony among all of us.

    I re-request the “Helaya” to give a public apology.

    Getting back to the track why cant SLSI 1134 corrected to 2 byte system

    The present system takes us no where.

    Since the proffessor and the team missed the bus they do not like someone else to correct the SLSI and move the iT industry in Sri Lanka forward.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  11. I completely agree with Mr. Harsha De Silva (or is it Ms.?) that we should not sling mud at any individual. We should look how we can change the situation positively, instead of pointing fingers at each other. ICT is an important sector in our country and we have so many issues to discuss.

    A very important issue under the same topic is the registration of dot lk domain names in Sri Lanka. I have heard many of my friends saying that it is extremely difficult and 2-3 times costlier to obtain a dot lk domain name than obtaining a dot com or dot org domain name. This can be the major reason why many Sri Lankan organisations do not opt for the dot lk domain names.

    In many countries, usually local organisations opt to go with the two letter domain name reserved for each country, instead of going as dot come or dot org. (Unless they operate at international level.) In countries like Sri Lanka and India the trend is the reverse.

    Perhaps we can analyse what we can do to resolve this issue.

    The official site of the LK Domain Registry gives the following names as the directors.

    Gihan V. Dias
    T. Ashok Peiris
    Rohith Udalagama
    G. Harsha Wijewardhana
    V.K. Samaranayake
    Jayantha T. Fernando
    L.M. Chandana Weerasinghe

    I would like very much if someone can explain to me, what is the type of this organisation and who appoints the directors. Is this a government agency? Or is it a non government agency? Or a government owned private company like ICT Agency? Who appoints its Directors? Is it President? Minister? Cabinet? Parliament? UGC? ICT Agency? What is the basis of appointing its directors? Where does the money paid for domain names go finally?

    Can someone please enlighten me on this?

  12. There are 18,875,000 people in Sri Lanka. 18,874,999 people agree that Unicode can support Sinhala and Tamil languages and it is the way to go forward. Only one person is making a big noise like an empty pot.

    Unicode standard for Sinhala fonts is desinged and presented by a well educated committe appinted by the CINTEC. They are all the experts in the filed. They do not have to take instructions from Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse.

    The CINTEC Internet Committee found that one of the major impediments to the development and use of the Internet in Sri Lanka, especially into rural areas is the lack of local language content. The Committee agreed that the availability of a high quality, free, and standards-conformant Sinhala font would enable content providers to create Sinhala language content.

    As a first measure, the Internet Committee decided that a Committee on Unicode Compatible Sinhala Fonts should be formed. This Committee would define the basic minimum requirements for Unicode compatible Sinhala fonts; define the essential features which should be present in a Sinhala character set, character combinations and their input, address the requirements for a standard Sinhala keyboard, key board stroke sequences, and issues relating to the glyphs and keyboard drivers.
    .
    The Council has appointed the following as Committee members and resource persons:

    1. Dr. Gihan Dias .lk Domain Name Registrar – Chair
    (Senior Lecturer and Head, Networking Unit, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa).

    2. Prof. J. B. Disanayaka Professor Emeritus of Sinhala, University of Colombo
    Department of Sinhala, University of Colombo.

    3. Ms. Amara Nanayakkara Librarian, National Library and Documentation Services Board

    4. Mr. Lalith De Silva Deputy Government Printer, Department of Government Printing

    5. Mr. Abhaya Amaradasa Head of Group – Operations, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

    6. Mr. Anura Tissera Head of Division – Projects, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

    7. Mr. H. Naveen Gunaratne Information System Manager, Wijeya Publications Ltd.,

    8. Mr. Niranjan Meegammana Chief Technologist, e-Fusion Ltd.

    9. Dr. Ruwan Weerasinghe Senior Lecturer, School of Computing, University of Colombo

    10. Mr. Harsha Wijayawardena Consultant, School of Computing, University of Colombo

    11. Ms. Padma Jayaweera, Commissioner, Department of. Official Languages

    12. Ms. Aruni Goonetilleke Assistant Director, CINTEC.

    13. Prof. VK Samaranayake Director, School of Computing, University of Colombo

    14. Mr. S. T. Nandasara Coordinator of the ADSTC (Advanced Digital Media Technology
    Center) School of Computing, University of Colombo

  13. Please visit http://www.nic.lk

    See who owns gov.lk site

    Top Level Domain
    gov.lk is registered to LK Domain Registry
    Payment Due Date: 2005-01-01
    gov.assn.lk registered to ICT Agency of Sri Lanka

    Domain priu.gov.lk is registered in the Sri Lankan Domain Registry for Presidential Secratariat
    Registration Agent: LKNIC

    This leaves us who is the government of Sri Lanka (priu.gov.lk or gov.lk)
    Is it ICT agency or Presidential Secratariat???

    You can see who control the IT sector in Sri Lanka.
    They control the gov.lk .
    Poor Hon President (Minister of IT) who is unaware of who is cutting grass under his own feet!!!

    This is a national security problem. I warn you Hon President.

    The list has been given by “Helaya” who may be one of them writing with a pen name also avoid the question in Unicode “DU” “KSHA” and avoid the public apology.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  14. As one whose initial remarks at the APC South Asia ICT Policy Consultation two weeks ago in Dhaka sparked off this discussion, let me join it now – and try to take us back to the wider issues and concerns.

    Sadhya Herath has raised a very important issue, one that has not received sufficient attention and discussion in Sri Lanka: the proper, accountable management of Sri Lanka’s country code Top Level Domain, ccTLD, which is dot lk.

    For general background on ccTLD, please visit:
    http://www.icann.org/cctlds/
    http://www.wwtld.org/

    A less official perspective available from:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain

    I have been trying to get more people interested in the dot lk issue, ever since I realised how badly it is managed by a cartel of academics who operate below the radar, exploiting the ignorance of government regulators and indirectly benefitting from the uninformed civil society activists (to whom rural connectivity and tele-centres seem to be all that matters).

    Yet, as LIRNEasia Executive Director Rohan Samarajiva has very rightly pointed in many forums, ICT development cannot take place if we don’t address fundamental issues and resolve them once and for all. To me, proper governance and management of dot lk is a core issue, just as the management of the electro-magnetic spectrum is. For several decades, Sri Lanka has mismanaged and squandered the E-M Spectrum (as acknowledged by a former head of TRC itself). We are now allowing a similar misfortune to befall our ccTLD through our apathy, ignorance and inaction.

    To position Sri Lanka appropriately in the globalised information society, and to project Sri Lanka’s image as a Smart Island, it is essential that Sri Lankan organisations – public, private and civil society – are allowed and encouraged the wide use of .lk domain names. Yet, engaging the dot lk registry has been made so bureaucratic and cumbersome that many have opted to take on globally used (non country-specific) domain names such as dot com, and dot org. If you like, I can list a whole series of public sector institutions whose websites don’t use dot lk!

    In our assessment of Sri Lanka’s ICT sector in the Digital Review of Asia Pacific http://www.digital-review.org/, Chanuka Wattegama and I wrote:

    “While the basic policy and procedures of domain name registration are outlined at the registry’s website , the basis for resolving disputes is not clearly articulated. Some industry sources express concern over the arbitrary nature of name assigning and dispute resolution. As a result, many Sri Lankan companies have opted to obtain more universal URLs with domain names such as .com, completely ignoring the country domain name.”

    This situation has not significantly changed in the three years that have passed since. Dot lk continues to be under-used, over-bureaucratised, and very poorly managed. The custodians of dot lk are not accountable to the government or people of Sri Lanka as far as we can tell.

    At the APC South Asia ICT Policy Consultation in Dhaka http://www.apcasiaictpolicy.net/, I initiated a discussion group on better governance of ccTLDs. Here are highlights of our discussion. which involved concerned civil society activists from Australia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and UK:

    • ccTLD management have historically been assigned and managed in an ad hoc manner. While some countries have taken steps to regularise this situation, others have allowed the status quo to continue.

    • Use of ccTLDs has been slow due to cumbersome, over-bearing registration processes. As economic, social, cultural and political implications of Internet use intensify, South Asian countries feel the need to rationalise and streamline ccTLD management. (.in registration went up from 5,000 to 175,000 within months when streamlined)

    • Private individuals (some non-resident) managing ccTLDs is a concern (.lk, .pk, .ph). Where’s accountability and transparency?

    • But is government take-over the best solution? What is a good multi-stakeholder management structure (as in .au, .za or .bg?)

    • Among other issues that need more study, discussion and engagement:
    – Monopoly vs. competition in registrars
    – Registry and registrar dynamics – need for strict separation
    – Role of ICANN and the option of ccTLD ‘redelegation’
    – Appropriate role of governments in internet governance
    – Need for civil society interfacing with ICANN Govt Advisory Council (GAC) members
    – Cyber-squatting and dispute resolution mechanisms
    – Managing basic data on domain name registrants
    – Issues of cost and quality of service
    – Privacy concerns: Whois database

    We recognised the following as follow up action items needed:

    * Need for documenting what has happened so far for purposes of the record

    * Country studies on ccTLD performance and potential (e.g. .ph study in progress)

    * Closer networking to keep track of Internet Governance Forum and other developments

    * Raise awareness among civil society groups and activists of this fundamental common property issue

    Clearly, we have much to do, and we have encouraged APC to provide a platform on which some of these issues can be advocated and taken forward.

    I welcome Sandhya Herath and other concerned Sri Lankans to join hands with me in exerting pressure on the current custodians of Dot lk to govern and manage the country’s top level domain name in a more transparent, accountable and professional manner. If not, Sri Lanka’s ICT sector will have yet another barrier that holds it back.

  15. Please do not call this mud slinging. Saying the truth is no mud slinging.

    Corruption remains to be one of the key issues in the Sri Lankan computer industry. There are so many corrupted high-ranking government officers in Sri Lanka who make millions and billions of rupees in the computer deals, in the most unethical manner, exploiting the lack of knowledge of the general public on matters related to IT.

    Unless we tackle this issue there will be no future for the Sri Lankan computer industry. Public money will continue to end up in personal accounts, not just in Sri Lanka but in UK, USA and Switzerland as well. In addition, there is also the danger of the country getting useless systems that serve no purpose. So there cannot be any more positive move than exposing this kind of dirty rats who stands barriers to the development of the local computer industry.

    Let us see how the bid for the Check Image Clearing project was awarded in 2004. This is one of the largest computer deals awarded recently.

    Nine companies submitted bids for this project. Three companies were short-listed.

    A mandatory requirement for the eligibility was that the bidder should have successfully implemented a nationwide Check Image Clearing system

    The first bidder was ProgressSoft, a Jordanian company who has implemented a similar system in Qatar and was doing the same in UAE. By the time of the bid the operation in Qatar has successfully completed two years. This company was locally represented by DMS Electronics, a reputed IT firm having experience of more than 20 years. The bid value was around Rs. 100 million.

    The second bidder was Unisys, which was an internationally reputed firm in manufacturing computers, peripherals and software. Unisys is represented in almost every country in the region. In the banking sector it is one of the top five players. Unisys had the experience of running a similar system in the Automated Clearing House in Hong Kong for a period of more than one year. It was locally represented by BC Computers, another computer firm with an experience of more than 20 years. Its bid value was about Rs. 140 million.

    The third bidder, who gave the most expensive bid, was BCSIS, a Singaporean company. It has run a similar operation in Singapore for about one year. Outside Singapore its presence was limited only to Malaysia. There was nothing wrong with its technical solution but their partner was not a computer company but a domestic courier service. (Nobody was sure why they wanted to link with a courier service, until they heard the name of the Chairman of that courier service, and his relationship to banking.) Its bid value was nearly Rs. 200 million.

    If the technical aspects were considered, any of the above three companies could have implemented the Check Image Clearing solution. All three have proved that by implementing their solution in three different countries.

    However, finally the bid was awarded to BCSIS, the company that placed the highest bid of Rs. 200 million (That was more than twice the lowest bid.)

    Please do not ask me why. All I can say is one old man who was the Chairman of the concerned organization was also a part of the Technical Evaluation Committee. Please do not ask me how many of his children were studying in the US or about his career history.

    Now the history is about to repeat. This time another Chairman is conveniently chairing a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) to decide on another high value bid. Officially Chairpersons or CEOs of organizations cannot sit in a TEC. This is clearly specified in the regulations No. 352(10) issued by the Treasury Secretary dated August 24, 2000. This is to prevent any political or other influences on the decision. It is also mandatory for all high value tenders to get the approval of the National Procurement Agency. However, this particular Chairman who chairs his own organization as well as the Technical Evaluation Committee has conveniently overlooked all these regulations. It is also interesting how one can appoint oneself to a committee. He should have a dire need to do so.

    This time three Korean companies are bidding to install the nationwide government computer network. Since the evaluation is still going on let us call the companies A, B and C. A has given a bid for US$ 13 million B has given a bid for US$ 15 million and C has given a bid for US$ 28 million.

    Now everyone is waiting to see which firm this bid will be awarded to. An interesting fact is firms B and C do not have legally authorized local partners.

    A local partner was a mandatory requirement in this tender, as the computer network should be installed island-wide. (including North and Eastern provinces)

    No foreign company can do this without a local partner taking the responsibility. Practically Korean nationals only cannot install a country-wide network in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the bid documents clearly specified that the local partner should not be a sub contractor.

    However, our old and ailing chairman is now playing a different game. He has an obvious favorite. I do not know the exact reason why (it is anyone’s guess) but it is clear our man is trying to award this deal to a particular company. Which company is that, is again, anyone’s guess. He has gone overboard to help that company.

    Can we ever think of the development of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka as long as we have people like this driving the industry?

    Isn’t it the time to handover this country to uncorrupt and young professionals who would do an honest job?

    This is not mud slinging. This is the truth.

    My poor Mother Lanka!

  16. I am extremely sorry if any of my posts have hurt the honest and hard working officials in the ICT Agency.

    ICTA has some of the best and honest officials in its ranks, no doubt. But the behavior of its current chairman brings disgrace to the institution and all its staff members.

  17. Donald mahattayo,

    Is stupidity something running in your family or is it our free education system that made you this stupid?

    I do not have the facility to present graphics here, but I am sure so many people have shown you so many times how to write Sinhala in Unicode. I cannot imagine how one can be that stupid that he cannot understand simple logic. Anyway, let me give a try again.

    Unlike the European languages, the Asian languages do not have individual letter system. Instead we have special signs like ispili and paapili to be used with consonants.

    As you appears so uneducated in these matters, let me educate you a bit on the history of the European languages too. Few centuries back they too did not have vowels. Instead they have something called ‘nikkudims’ – tiny dots and dashes written either below or within the consonants to indicate what vowel sound accompanies them. This is the same method used in Unicode. When writing any Asian language Unicode combines the vowel portion and the consonant portion. So theoretically every letter is represented by two codes, but sometimes it is only one, if it is a pure consonants.

    So this is how you write your first name in Unicode in Sinhala.

    Do = 0DA9 0DCC
    na = 0DB1
    l = 0DBD 0DCA
    d = 0DA9 0DCA

    So you have to use only seven characters. If you write in English you still use six codes. (one code for each letter) See the important point here. Sinhala is a much complex language than English (54 letters in Sinhala alphabet against 26 in English) but you just need one more code to write your name in Sinhala.

    Why cannot you appreciate this simple logic?

    You speak about joint letters in Sinhala like ‘ksha’ (as in Rajapaksha) but this is easily possible in Unicode. You just have to write the letters ‘ka’ and ‘sha’ and join them using a Zero width joiner. It is as simple as ABC. By this manner you can represent any letter in the alphabet including yansaya and repaya. So what is the bid idea of making this big noise?

    You always complain that we cannot use Unicode anywhere other than in PCs, but that has been shown, not in theory, but by doing that practically. Do not you still know that now we can send SMS in Sinhala? Wake up man! Go update yourself. Do not live in the nineteenth century.

    I hope this post will end the useless argument with you.

  18. Mr. Donald,

    If you want more:

    Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language. The Unicode Standard has been adopted by such industry leaders as Apple, HP, IBM, JustSystem, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun, Sybase, Unisys and many others. Unicode is required by modern standards such as XML, Java, ECMAScript (JavaScript), LDAP, CORBA 3.0, WML, etc., and is the official way to implement ISO/IEC 10646. It is supported in many operating systems, all modern browsers, and many other products. The emergence of the Unicode Standard, and the availability of tools supporting it, are among the most significant recent global software technology trends.

    Incorporating Unicode into client-server or multi-tiered applications and websites offers significant cost savings over the use of legacy character sets. Unicode enables a single software product or a single website to be targeted across multiple platforms, languages and countries without re-engineering. It allows data to be transported through many different systems without corruption.

  19. yudisdara,

    you say: [ICTA has some of the best and honest officials in its ranks, no doubt.]

    can you tell me the names of these honest officers in the icta?

  20. Where “Helaya and his team went wrong”

    “the Asian languages do not have individual letter system.”

    this is where your group went wrong. All Asian languages are individual characters.
    Computer is not a typewriter

    “54 letters in Sinhala alphabet”
    You know nothing, Sinhala Alphabet consist over 2000 characters
    With 54 can you write the word “He” of Helaya.
    Leave the typewriter thinking.

    “SMS in Sinhala”
    only on restricted mobile phones and a monopoly of one company. It is an illegal act on fair trade practice.

    “Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language.”

    So what is the unicode code point for “DU” in unicode chart you have not answered this yet
    .
    You are defending UNICODE our debate is what SLSI 1134 registered with unicode is incorrect.

    Nobody say or said UNICODE is wrong. WHAT SLSI 1134 REGISTERED WITH UNICODE is incomplete and incorrect set of sinhala characters. This is what we address.

    You all hold the tail end of Sinhala unicode
    When you hold the tail of a cobra you know what will happen!!!

    Solution is to register all Sinhala individual characters in the UNICODE
    all each and every sinhala characters are displayed other than my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    Can you give me an correct answer why SLSI 1134 registered four ayanna in unicode.?
    With what you say one ayanna is more than enough. This proves the “xxxxxxx” of Emeritus Professor and his team —- listed above in tread by Helaya.

    You all had no knowledge in “typology” or “typography”. These are the end results. When the errors are pointed still cannot accept the error.

    You have not given the public apology nor answered my questions.

    Have you seen the rawvaya newspaper last sunday!!!!

    http://www.akuru.org/images/rawaya2.jpg.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  21. Correction:

    Solution is to register all Sinhala individual characters in the UNICODE

    No publication has all each and every sinhala characters other than my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    This is what boils the Emeritus Professor and his team

    Donald

  22. First of all, I thank Nalaka for his long and comprehensive reply on the ccTLD issue.

    I am also glad this forum is giving us an opportunity to discuss the maladies in the Sri Lanka’s ICT sector and possible remedies in a positive and responsible manner.

    For the past, what I have observed that no opportunity has been given for the GENERAL PUBLIC of this country like me to share their views in different matters related to ICT in Sri Lanka.

    This is very interesting because we always here that we live in a DEMOCRATIC and SOCIALISTIC REPUBLIC and people has the power to decide what they want.

    However, what had happened in the ICT filed in most of the occasions is HANDFUL OF DOMINATING CHARACTERS TAKING DECISIONS ON BEHALF OF ALL OF US – WITHOUT EVER BOTHERING TO ASK WHAT WE THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone might call it Stalinism and I call it as nothing but ICT DICTATORSHIP.

    These few individuals think they can dictate what the 19 million of people want without consulting the public – the very people they say would benefit from ICTs.

    This poses the fundamental question whether we live in a democratic society.

    HOW CAN JUST FEW PEOPLE DECIDE ON THE MATTERS THAT AFFECT 19 MILLION? HOW CAN THEY TAKE DECISIONS ON BEHALF OF 19 MILLION PEOPLE?

    For example, just take the two issues discussed above.

    Were there any public consolations about the dot lk domain registration process? Have the public of this country consulted on any occasion on the procedures? Or was it just handful of people decided what they thought best for the country? (My original question still remain unanswered: Who appoints these decision makers?)

    Were there any public consolation about the Sinhala Unicode alphabet? Or was it decided by few people who thought they knew best? Who were the Sinhala scholars participated in the process of deciding the Sinhala Unicode system? Were there any public consultation process?

    As far as I know, there were NONE.

    BOTH THESE ISSUES, WHICH ARE RELEVANT TO 19 MILLION PEOPLE IN SRI LANKA WERE DECIDED BY FEW INDIVIDUALS WHO THOUGHT THEY KNOW ALL AND THEY CAN DECIDE WHAT THE OTHERS WANT.

    Are we living in Stalin’s Russia or Pol Pot’s Kampuchea?

    Should we encourage this type of dictatorship? Or should we encourage a more democratic process, where everyone whether it is public sector, private sector, civil society, media or even just individuals are free to express their opinion and contribute positively to the policy making process?

  23. Thanks Mr Sandhya Herath.

    You have understood the two major issues. dot lk and Sinhala

    First Let me tell you some history of SLSI 1134

    In the year 2004 April 26th The Sri Lanka Standards Institution Drafted
    a published SLSI1134 for public comments

    Only two groups objected to this
    Myself & the other is the Sri Lanka Association of Printers
    My objections were rejected by a panel of more than 20 people.
    None of the panel had any knowledge in typology or typography or
    willing to listen to me.
    But this meeting was documented and recorded it in the files of SLSI.

    The SLSI 1134 was approved.
    This is incorrect and incomplete set of Sinhala Characters

    Even before the SLSI 1134 in the year 2003 I made a public lecture at
    the University of Sri Lanka and it can be downloaded from

    http://www.cssl.lk/PL/ICT-&-lang3.ppt

    SLSI 1134 went ahead with the part of the characters (glyphs) to
    construct a character.
    This became a problem. text created by one application will not read as
    the same text in another application etc etc

    Legal Issue:
    During this time the of year the Intellectual Property act No 36 of
    2003 came into effect.
    My concept of individual characters to be used in computer became a
    area protected by the above act because—( THE ACT DEFINED — )MY
    PROCESS, SYSTEM & Idea permits in practice — the solution to a
    specific problem in the field of technology.

    ************

    Where is “KU” “REPAYA” “YANSAYA” “LU” “DU” “Kayanna badhi shayanna” to
    write the name of our President Rajapaksha.

    Recently I wrote this mail to Executive Chairman of the ICTA

    —-I quote from my mail ——–

    Dear Executive Chairman of the ICTA,

    I hope you read my article to the Daily Mirror Sat 4 March 2006.

    Do you know that your SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete?
    Do you know that ICTA will never be able to implement the e-SL program
    in Sinhala Language and Tamil Language.
    Do you know that the Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the Government
    to use Sinhala Language and Tamil Language in Sri Lanka.
    Do you know that this is a mandatory requirement.
    Do you know that google.lk is just a hype
    Do you know that without Sinhala and Tamil the e-SL program it self a
    hype.

    If your SLSI 1134 is the correct solution why cant the content
    developers develop the web site in Sinhala Language and Tamil Language?
    Please note that computer is not a typewriter. With your SLSI 1134 you
    can use a computer as a typewriter but not as a computer.

    Until when are you going to fool the general public and the Minister
    for IT who is the Hon President of Sri Lanka?

    Hope you have the time to visit my web site http://www.akuru.org.

    “”” Quote””” from a comment I received

    Well asked – but don’t expect these people to reply!

    The Chairman of ICTA is also the former chairman of CINTEC who created
    the current problem with Sinhala fonts. He is the least likely to do
    anything to resolve it, because he will then be exposing his earlier
    bungling.

    Besides, his UCSC ‘golaya’ yyyyy and his buddy “xxxxxx” have
    globe-trotted for a decade saying they are doing Sinhala fonts. All
    that will be exposed and brought into question the moment things are
    done PROPERLY even at this late stage.

    ”’UNQUOTE”

    All because of SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete.

    The image of SLSI 1134 is annexed at the bottom.

    These are facts.

    Please read understand and act to save Sinhala language.

    NOW come to the dot lk

    I use akuru as my web site.

    ALL AKURU sites of dot lk is registered with ICTA but the pay date is expired
    I ask this question at Seminar from ICTA Lawyer MR Jayatha Fernando

    He admitted publicly in the seminar ( William Tell Circle March 16 2006) verbally this is an unethical act of ICTA but there is no way to solve it.
    Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will have to mediate but the laws are not passed.

    Then I found that the akuru dot lk’s payment due date has been expired
    I wrote an e-mail to Mr Manju Hatthotuwa requesting him to change the owner ship to me
    Also wrote the same E mail to the ICTA Lawyer Mr Jayatha Fernando.

    Both of them never acknowledged my mail.

    I also applied to nic.lk asking for akuru domain as the payment due date has been expired they too never replied.

    This is Sri Lanka’s IT Mafia.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  24. Dear All,

    Eventhough I dont want to point fingers at any one, I would like to bring some factual information with regard to some of the things discussed above.

    – Sinhala Unicode is proven by many, including our company Microimage. The Unicode Fonts are available and can be used for all types of desktop applications. Apart from Microimage many private and public institutions has released respective versions of Unicode compliant products.

    – Microimage was the 1st to realease the fully unicode compliant mobile browser. So even the unicode is working on the mobile browser. This proves unicode standard can be implemented on a mobile phone as well.

    – In unicode it’s important to understand how it works in order to implement solutions.

    – Patent – We never had a issue with a PATENT which we filed way back in 2004 for our Mobile implementation. After 1 year of delays and evaluations we were granted a PATENT for mobile based sinhala/tamil key manipulation and rendering. No one blocked this matter. Further would like to state MI obtained the PATENT in order to safeguard our local efforts from overseas companies who enters our market and takes ownership of our hardwork. And this is not obtain in the intention of blocking any local company/individuals doing simmilar work. PATENT details are available at http://www.microimage.com

    – ICTA – What I have realized about pointing fingers at ICTA is that, ICTA alone cant take ICT initiatives forward. All the stakeholders in the industry and all vetrans needs to join hands as well as do there respective bits to develop and take initiatives forward. The mobile sinhala / tamil SMS and browser initiatives which we took and implemented back in 2004/2005 were all surprise news to ICTA. They even didnt know that we were doing such projects till these came into the market. However, upon launch they appreciated our work. We didnt wait till we find donors and research funds or ICTA fund to be granted to do such initiatives. Another project which we did was disaster warnning after getting some expert advise from some of they key veterans in this subject whom we are working closely even now and this too is something that ICTA didnt even knew about. If we all think that ICTA is going to do the entire eSri lanka initiative then it will not be a reality. All of us has to play our role as I see even intellectuals and people with different views such as Mr.Donald should put his act together.

    This debate of Mr. Donald against the entire ICT industry is going on for many years now. What I kindly suggest Mr.Donald whom I have respect for his intellectual work is to bring his ideas to the table in a future revision/review of Unicode and it’s standard. Also most importantly technially develop his version and present to people concerned and general public. The negative side of Mr.Donalds argument is that his method is not technically developed so far and presented or released. As majority of the working groups which included Microsoft to Linux based groupd who agreed on the Unicode it doenst make sense to keep this dragging rather than do technical implementation which is vital for the country.

    In conclusion I quite agree to the fact that many more things needed to be done in Sri Lankan ICT industry to enable Sinhala/Tamil Unicode usage in general ICT use. However would like to notify that there are many websites popping up which are Unicode compliant now compared to year ago.

    Finally, again would like to notify all that this comments are to present facts related to some of the discussed topics but not to harm or accuse anyone.

  25. Palitha Manukulasuriya

    This is a good debate. After reading what other wrote I like to add my two cents.

    Somebody mentions about a big old dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus rex, who prevents the dynamic and young professionals to move ahead in the ICT field.

    Let me ask: Is this something unique to ICT field? Don’t we have such big old dinosaurs in every filed of our country?

    Have you ever seen Amaradeva giving a helping hand to any young musician/singer? Did you see him coming and wishing the Sirasa Super Stars? Did you ever see Amaradeva saying a single good word about the talent of any Sirasa Super Stars? Do you think he has not observed the classic voice of Dharshana Promod?

    Have you ever seen Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera praising a budding writer or a poet? Do you know what he has said about young poets? Have not you seen the way he has totally demoralized young writers and poets?

    Have you ever heard Dr. Sunanda Mahendra De Mel or Emeritus Prof. J. B. Dissanayake saying anything good about a young academic? Have you ever seen any one of them writing a good review about a book by a young author?

    My dear, all these are big, old and ugly dinosaurs in our country and their life mission is to block others reaching the level they are now. No doubt, they were all very talented people in their hey days, and they have reached a certain level because of that talent. Now they are so threatened by the young blood and perpetually scared that someone would come up one day to their level and push them down. So naturally they do everything to stop anyone going up.

    Therefore, one such dinosaur in the ICT field is nothing. Cheer up! In other fields, we have so many such big bad dinosaurs. You have only one.

    But do not worry. Don’t we all know what happened to the Dinosaurs? For what ever the reason, they got extinct from the face of the earth. So just wait, it is only a matter of time.

    P.S. Of course, there are many seniors who willingly give a helping hand to the juniors of their fields. One always remembers how Lester fought for Vimukthi Jayasundera and now he is fighting to save Handagama’s new film. We should also respect Khemadasa for his genuine appreciation of the talents of the young Super Stars.

  26. Donald mahattayo,

    I thought you are bit more intelligent, and now you ask questions even a second grade student will not ask.

    [“54 letters in Sinhala alphabet” You know nothing, Sinhala Alphabet consist over 2000 characters.]

    I said 54 letters in Sinhala alphabet. You talk about characters. Letters are not characters. You do not even know the difference. Go to grade one and learn.

    [So what is the unicode code point for “DU” in unicode chart you have not answered this yet]

    Easy man, go to http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0D80.pdf and learn how to write it.

    Du = 0DAF 0DD4

    [Nobody say or said UNICODE is wrong.]

    So if you agree Unicode is not wrong, let us all use it. What is the big deal?

    Have you run out of all stupid questions?

  27. Dear Helaya

    Du = one code point not two code points

    You are talking about a type writer not a computer.

    I cannot see du in unicode chart

    You are avioding the question : There is no debate about unicode consotium
    BUT SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete.

    What you registered with unicode is incorrect and incomplete.

    The Sinhala Alphabet have more than 2000 letters or characters (what ever you call)
    With you 54 letters where is the letter “HE” of Helaya
    You avoid the answer

    Dear Harsha

    What I have told is truth.

    With parts of characters you can use computer as a typewriter but not as a computer.

    Can you copy and paste unformated sinhala text from your helawadane to adobe illustrator?
    or v.v

    Can you copy a sinhala unformated text from Helawadana into note pad and paste it to word?

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  28. Dear Harsha

    Quote”to bring his ideas to the table in a future revision/review of Unicode ” unquote

    It is sad even you have got the wrong side of the coin.
    There is nothing to review on UNICODE

    My point is SINHALA UNICODE = SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete

    Unicode and the Sinhala registered in unicode are two different subjects

    I talk of SInhala SLSI 1134 = Sinhala unicode chart
    This is incorrect and incomplete.

    First is to accept this fact. SLSI 1134 is incorrect

    Then we can go into the secoond step.

    Other option is what I have presented the full character system

    If you accept this rest fall in line.

    Even your limited SMS is based on full characters not parts of characters. am I correct?

    quote”doenst make sense to keep this dragging rather than do technical implementation ” unquote

    If one cannot copy and paste sinhala text from one application to another
    If software developers are unable to make sinhala OCR
    Voice to sinhala text and sinhala text to voice
    name a few
    The exsisting system is at fault.
    We have to correct this ASAP

    Donald

    —————————————–

    Now back to “HELAYA”

    You have not answerd

    The public apology!!

    Can you give me an correct answer why SLSI 1134 registered four ayanna in unicode.?

    Where is the character or letter “HE” in your sinhala 54 letter alphabet

    Unicode Code point for “DU” and “ksha”

    You have not repilied to Ravaya news paper

    Have you seen my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  29. Palitha Manukulasuriya has actually amplified on what I posted earlier (see Post No 9).

    Dinosaurs – which literally meant terrible lizards – are all too common in so many fields in Sri Lanka. The whole Sri Lankan armed forces cannot even begin to help the dinosaur-size insecurities these once-talented great men and women seem to have!

    Somebody once called them Bo trees – they are large and revered, but they don’t allow other trees to come up under them. Our intellectual and artistic dinosaurs don’t leave any proteges or successors worth talking about.

    In the case of ICT, we can only hope that the big ugly dinosaur will become extinct soon for everyone else’s benefit. And just as well he leaves no next generation behind!

  30. Donald Gaminitillake’s passion and commitment to the cause are admirable. But sometimes single-issue activists like him can’t see the bigger picture. They need to take a few steps back from time to time and get some perspective.

    Streamlining and rationalising Sinhala fonts is absolutely essential and urgently needed. No argument. But that is only a first step. What then?

    What have all the promoters of Sinhala culture and heritage done to generate substantive, quality content in Sinhala that can be placed online the moment Sinhala Unicode is cleaned up?

    Where is metacontent in Sinhala? Metacontent is things like dictionaries, directories, searchable listings, online encyclopedias like the Wikipedia.

    We will continue to have the content vacuum in Sinhala even when (or if?) the Sinhala fonts are standardised and made fully compatible for all the IT and ICT functions.

    We should prepare content and metacontent from now onwards, even if offline initially, to be placed online when there is a standardised Sinhala font.

    We can’t expect this to be initiated by the professors of Sinhala whose only skill with keyboards is to just type.

  31. Don’t you dare to criticize our Chairman of the ICTA. He is the greatest ICT expert in the history of Sri Lanka, and father of ICT in this country. Only the jealous failures try to discredit him. But his track record can speak for itself. We are indeed fortunate to have a man of the stature of Professor V K Samaranayaka continuing to provide able and visionary leadership to ICT development in Sri Lanka.

    We will deal with those who dare to criticise him. We wil track them down using the technical and legal powers vested in ICTA. And we will teach them all a good lesson.

    After all, our chairman is an Emeritus Professor, and he loves to teach!

  32. Thanks Aksharaya

    I am not talking about fonts

    I am talking about the base that makes fonts and other applications. Unicode is not a font. It is the base code points for development software. If the SLSI 1134 = Sinhala Unicode is incorrect and incomplete we got to correct it.
    Once this is done the dictioneries, online encyclopedias , will automatically gets generated
    There are thousands of people out there who wants to do this type of work but they are deprived of it.
    You cannot do any of above with the present method other than to use a computer as a typewriter.

    Like Mr Palitha Manukulasuriya said we have to show the public the location of these Dinosaurs.
    In Sri Lanka most of the general public yet to know about computer. see the following link.

    http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/11/14/bus02.html

    MaRa need to open his or her eyes wider and see the actual situvation. Hope MaRa has the time to read the Ravaya Newspaper also see the above link.

    and

    This article appered in Ceylon Daily News and in two parts on pdf format

    Computer imbroglio in keeping with Sinhala language
    by Aelian de Silva B.Sc. Eng. (Lond.), CEng., FIEE (UK), FIE (SL)

    you can download it from http://www.akuru.org

    MaRa just give up. There is no need to protect any Dinosaurs who had distroyed my language Sinhala.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  33. This is related to the post about the Lanka Clear.

    I have worked few months in LankaClear & I have very good idea about that.

    All your thoughts are absolutely correct. Lankaclear is full of corrupted people and lot of under arm deals as you mentioned.

    I joined there in last year to work on new image clearing system. In few months I understood this is a wrong please to me. I wonder how there IT manager, Project manager and all IT superiors came to these positions. They know nothing about IT. Chairmen is an old man with out any knowledge in IT. He is not only the chairmen of LankaClear, He is the chairmen of lot of institutes like Sri Jayardanapura hospital. You may know current poor status of that hospital. He is the man behind all.

    He also own some business. One is that currier service now the Software partner of new image clearing system ! They don’t have any experience in software industry. I wonder is Central Bank of Sri Lanka, major share holder of lankaclear approving these kind of deals. As a result Image Clearing system is still lagging. They plan to complete it on last year. But until today it was not success.

    In LankaClear account department is privatised. That was doing by Old mans own company. Operators of check clearing system were out sourced. They are taken from manpower company, that also Old mans own one.

    I know government spend lot of money in IT industry, but all are wasted. I feel so sorry about my country.

    What shall we do ? Can we take an action against this ?

  34. Donald mahattayo,

    Looks like you have very little brain power. That is why you keep asking the questions we have answered already. You do not even have the brain of a Grade one student.

    Or is that because Catholic Church pays you every time you make a post? (So I will reply to you this time too because you can reply back and get your payments from the church.)

    1. You say: Du = one code point not two code points

    So what? Who dictates that we should have only one code per letter? If it is so, we would never be able to write anything other than pure consonants in Sinhala.

    2. You say: You are talking about a type writer not a computer.

    Old man, we too are talking about computers. Not type writers. Do you think we are also dinosaurs like you to talk about type writers? Old man, unlike a type writer you are used to, a computer can combine two characters to make a new letter (character). That is why we use the Unicode chart.

    3. You say: I cannot see du in Unicode chart

    This is like saying I do not see an engine in this, so this engine does not have any engine. Man, you have to open the bonnet and see. I have shown you already how ‘Du’ is represented in Unicode. Now, do you also want me to show how ‘Gu’ is coded in Unicode?

    4. You say: What you registered with Unicode is incorrect and incomplete.

    Prove it old man, prove it. Show us a single letter that cannot be written using Unicode. Then we believe you.

    5. You say: Where is the character or letter “HE” in your sinhala 54 letter alphabet

    Have not you seen a kombuwa and the letter ‘Ha’ in the Unicode chart? Combine them and get the letter ‘He’. Unicode gives only 128 (16×8) locations to any language. This is the rule not for Sinhala, but for any language in the world. You whether you like it or not you have to represent all characters in the language in 128 spaces. You talk about 2,000 letters in Sinhala. If you are a mahadenamutta, please go ahead and suggest a better way to represent these 2,000 characters within 128 spaces. We are ready to listen. This is a challenge. If you cannot do that please do not argue any more.

    6. You say: You have not replied to Ravaya news paper

    Why should I reply to newspapers? I do not have any obligation to reply to newspapers. If you want you reply.

    7. You say: Like Mr Palitha Manukulasuriya said we have to show the public the location of these Dinosaurs.

    Very good. You are the biggest Dinosaur we have here and we are glad to get rid of you for the benefit of this nation. We do not want any agents of Catholic mafia to teach us about our heritage. We know how to protect our heritage.

    Now reply in triplicate and go and collect your due payments from the Church.

  35. Don’t you guys have nothing else to do other than mud slinging at each other?

    We have an international ICT seminar in Colombo next week. So many IT experts will be coming to Sri Lanka for that. What do you think the outsiders will think about Sri Lankans if they see something like this?

    Don’t you think we should settle our minor internal differences more amicably?

    Please do not behave as children.

  36. Anjana you are correct

    But let the world see what these guys are doing in Sri Lanka.

    I hope all the visitors visit this link before they attened the meeting.

    the method of assignment of glyphs differ from one software to the other, it leads to incomprehensibility of text composed on different software. For example, for a document composed with software X using font type AB, the document must also be read on an application running SoftwareX using font type AB. Otherwise, a character “DU” used in one software would be reproduced as ‘Ã©ú§¨’ in another. Similarly, key in methods would encounter the same obstacles. There is also a limitation of the usage of characters. Uncommon characters have been discarded. A user is therefore restricted to individual systems and unable to use different types of software. This is a direct result of existing software for Sinhala and Tamil having fixed parameters comprised by a fixed set of font(s) predetermined by the software developers.

    “DU” “GU” “repya’ “yansaya” has no code point in unicode (many more)
    see charts in the unicode. These are not registered in sinhla unicode or SLSI 1134

    quote
    Unicode gives only 128 (16×8) locations to any language
    unquote

    Unicode gives any number of locations based on the National Stadared of a country

    There are more languages using more than 128 locations

    I can give 64,000 locations for Sinhala. If you need 490,000 I can give 512,000 locations
    BUT you will use the same “QWERTY” or Wijesekera Keyboard to accsess the 512,000 locations

    This is my technology and my knowledge.I know you cannot think byond 128 .

    Quote letter “HE” in your sinhala 54 letter alphabet — unqoote
    You were the person who brought the Sinhala 54 into the picture. Sinhala unicode = SLSI 1134 is not the Sinhala Alphabet. If you say SLSI 1134 is the sinhala alpabet you know nothing about sinhala language.

    The emptyness of your knowledge is show to the world

    Soon you will have to go public and make an apology to the church for writing comments like this
    “quote
    We do not want any agents of Catholic mafia to teach us about our heritage. We know how to protect our heritage.”
    unquote

    What the church has done for the sinhala language is more than so called “saruwa pittala buddhist” like you have done.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  37. It is interesting to see how people talk about mud slinging and brining religion to the totally unrelated filed of ICT.

    Who started all these?

    It is an open secret that our Emirates Professor was the number one critic of E-Sri Lanka and ICTA ever had. There was not even a single aspect of E-Sri Lanka or ICTA that missed his sharp and harsh criticism.

    The simple reason was this so-called father of ICT (in fact ‘great grand father of ICT’ would have been a more correct term) was jealous and threatened as he was completely ignored in the set up of the E-Sri Lanka program.

    To rub salt to this Emirates Professor’s wounds then government appointed Mr. Eran Wickremaratne, a successful business personality and a gentleman to the core, as the Chairman of the ICTA. One might have found it extremely difficult to point finger at such a non-controversial character.

    However, Mr. Wickramaratne was also a junior priest of the Assembly of God (AOG) sect, the church of which was just next door to ICTA.

    Then in 2003 December Ven. Soma Thero died in San Francisco in Russia. There is no need to go for details as all of us know how this incident sparked so far non-existent hatred towards Catholics and Christians. Terms so far we have never heard like ‘Catholic mafia’, ‘Fundamentalists’, ‘Non Ethical conversions’ were suddenly on everyone’s mouth. Overnight everything Catholic/Christian became synonymous with devil. (Apparently people like our Helaya here have not still woken up from that dream.)

    Then we also started reading e-mails, newspaper reports and stuff on Internet all linking the E-Sri Lanka program and ICTA to Catholics and Christians. Mr. Eran Wickremeratne and ICTA even had to issue a public statement denying any relationship between ICTA and Catholic/Christian church.

    The most interesting part was these e-mails, while criticizing the key officials of e-Sri Lanka program for being Catholics/Christians, also indicated that the program had never taken advices of expert Sinhalese Buddhists. The brief list of these ‘expert Sinhalese Buddhists’ included the names of the Emirates Professor and one Mr. Wickremesinghe.

    So one cannot help wondering how prophetic these e-mails/news reports were when the Emirates Professor assumes the duties as the Chairman of ICTA immediately after the government change. The said Mr. Wickremesinghe was not on the board, but apparently his brother got a place. Very prophetic mails and reports indeed! (It just looked like someone above had heard the pleas in them. How coincidental!)

    Abuddhassa here says religion is the last refuge of the scoundrel!

    So now we know who the biggest scoundrel is!!!!!!!!!!

    It is also interesting that the people who look down on Christians do not find any reason why not to do certain unethical transactions with them.

    Perhaps it might be because the Korean won notes do not depict the images of Jesus Christ!

  38. When they lose a battle they want to focus it towards an irrelevant area. In this case they chose a religion

    See how many technical questions went unanswered.

    1,
    The unicode for Sinhala is incorrect and incomplete. If you can read sinhala please visit http://www.akuru.org/images/rawaya2.jpg.

    2.
    In Sri Lanka we cannot use the local language Sinhala in computer. We cannot transfer data using the local language Sinhala. Data is not compatible.

    3.
    For Tamil Language if you take the “demala eka kiyaveem potha’ Tamil book one page 48 and 49 gives the matrix of all tamil characters. Give the sinhala equivalent if you can!!!!

    4.
    See who owns gov.lk site
    This leaves us who is the government of Sri Lanka (priu.gov.lk or gov.lk) Is it ICT agency or Presidential Secratariat???

    5. Where is “KU” “REPAYA” “YANSAYA” “LU” “DU” “Kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President Rajapaksha.
    Give code points from Unicode chart or SLSI 1134.

    6. Can you give me an correct answer why SLSI 1134 registered four ayannas in unicode.?
    7.
    Do you know that ICTA will never be able to implement the e-SL program in Sinhala Language and Tamil Language.
    8.
    Do you know that the Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the Government to use Sinhala Language and Tamil Language in Sri Lanka.
    9.
    Do you know that this is a mandatory requirement.
    10
    Do you know that google.lk is just a hype
    11
    Do you know that without Sinhala and Tamil the e-SL program itself a hype.
    12
    Can you copy and paste unformated sinhala text from your helawadane to adobe illustrator?
    or v.v
    13
    Can you copy a sinhala unformated text from Helawadana into note pad and paste it to word?
    14.
    Even the limited SMS is based on full characters not parts of characters. am I correct?
    15.
    If one cannot copy and paste sinhala text from one application to another If software developers are unable to make sinhala OCR
    Voice to sinhala text and sinhala text to voice name a few
    The exsisting system is at fault.

    16.
    Have you seen my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.?

    17.
    have you seen the following link
    http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/11/14/bus02.html

    18
    This article appered in Ceylon Daily News and in two parts on pdf format
    Computer imbroglio in keeping with Sinhala language
    by Aelian de Silva B.Sc. Eng. (Lond.), CEng., FIEE (UK), FIE (SL)
    you can download it from http://www.akuru.org

    19.
    “DU” “GU” “repya’ “yansaya” has no code point in unicode (many more) see charts in the unicode. These are not registered in sinhla unicode or SLSI 1134

    20.
    ALL AKURU sites of dot lk is registered with ICTA but the pay date is expired I ask this question at Seminar from ICTA Lawyer MR Jayatha Fernando
    He admitted publicly in the seminar ( William Tell Circle March 16 2006) verbally this is an unethical act of ICTA but there is no way to solve it.
    Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will have to mediate but the laws are not passed.
    Then I found that the akuru dot lk’s payment due date has been expired
    I wrote an e-mail to Mr Manju Hatthotuwa requesting him to change the owner ship to me
    Also wrote the same E mail to the ICTA Lawyer Mr Jayatha Fernando.
    I also applied to nic.lk asking for akuru domain as the payment due date has been expired

    they too never replied.

    ———————————–

    Twenty unanswered questions are on float in this discussion. (based on my postings)
    None of these questions are based on any religion.

    I request the members of the IT conferance to put forward these question at the seminar obtain proper answers form the people concerned.

    Expose the truth and protect the public interest of Sri Lanka.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  39. Readers,

    They say in Sinhala, it is easy to argue with 100 pundits than to argue with a single modaya.

    I know this, but since the questions this man poses are so easy and he thinks I do not have answers let me go ahead. In fact many of the points are not even questions and many are irrelevant. Please see my replies in capitals.

    1,
    The unicode for Sinhala is incorrect and incomplete. If you can read sinhala please visit http://www.akuru.org/images/rawaya2.jpg.

    THIS ARTICLE SAYS UNICODE IS INCOMPLETE, BUT IT DOES NOT SAY WHY. I ASK WHY? PLEASE SAY WHY INSTEAD OF BLINDLY REPEATING IT IS INCOMPLE INCOMPLETE LIKE A PARROT.

    2.
    In Sri Lanka we cannot use the local language Sinhala in computer. We cannot transfer data using the local language Sinhala. Data is not compatible.

    COMPLETELY WRONG. WE ALREADY USE SINHALA IN COMPUTERS. JUST BECAUSE YOU CANNOT DO IT IT DOES NOT EVERYONE CANNOT. WE OBVIOUSLY CAN.

    3.
    For Tamil Language if you take the “demala eka kiyaveem potha’ Tamil book one page 48 and 49 gives the matrix of all tamil characters. Give the sinhala equivalent if you can!!!!

    IRRELEVANT. WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH UNICODE?

    4.
    See who owns gov.lk site
    This leaves us who is the government of Sri Lanka (priu.gov.lk or gov.lk) Is it ICT agency or Presidential Secratariat???

    IRRELEVANT. WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH UNICODE?

    5. Where is “KU” “REPAYA” “YANSAYA” “LU” “DU” “Kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President Rajapaksha.
    Give code points from Unicode chart or SLSI 1134.

    ALREADY ANSWERED. PLEASE REFER MY EARLIER POSTS.

    6. Can you give me an correct answer why SLSI 1134 registered four ayannas in unicode.?

    THERE ARE ENOUGH SPACES. SO WE CAN HAVE NOT 4 BUT 20 AYANNAS WE NEED.

    7.
    Do you know that ICTA will never be able to implement the e-SL program in Sinhala Language and Tamil Language.

    IT HAS ALREADY DONE. SO QUESTION DOES NOT ARISE.

    8.

    Do you know that the Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the Government to use Sinhala Language and Tamil Language in Sri Lanka.

    YES.

    9.
    Do you know that this is a mandatory requirement.

    YES.

    10
    Do you know that google.lk is just a hype

    IRRELEVENT. WHY SHOULD I CARE?

    11
    Do you know that without Sinhala and Tamil the e-SL program itself a hype.

    WRONG. E-SL PROGRAMME ALREADY USES SINHALA AND TAMIL.

    12
    Can you copy and paste unformated sinhala text from your helawadane to adobe illustrator?
    or v.v

    IRRERELEVANT. WHAT I HAVE TO DO WITH HELAWADANA AOR ADOBE? THEY ARE PROPERITORY SOFTWARE. ASK THE DEVELOPERS.

    13

    Can you copy a sinhala unformated text from Helawadana into note pad and paste it to word?

    SEE ABOVE ANSWER TO 13.

    14.
    Even the limited SMS is based on full characters not parts of characters. am I correct?

    WHY DO YOU WORRY AS LONG AS YOU CAN TRANSMIT THE MESSAGE.

    15.
    If one cannot copy and paste sinhala text from one application to another If software developers are unable to make sinhala OCR
    Voice to sinhala text and sinhala text to voice name a few
    The exsisting system is at fault.

    IT CAN, SO IT IS NOT.

    16.
    Have you seen my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0.?

    NO. I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN WASTE MY TIME READING WHAT ALL THE MORONS WRITE.

    17.
    have you seen the following link
    http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/11/14/bus02.html

    IRRELEVANT.

    18
    This article appered in Ceylon Daily News and in two parts on pdf format
    Computer imbroglio in keeping with Sinhala language
    by Aelian de Silva B.Sc. Eng. (Lond.), CEng., FIEE (UK), FIE (SL)
    you can download it from http://www.akuru.org

    IRRELEVANT.

    19.
    “DU” “GU” “repya’ “yansaya” has no code point in unicode (many more) see charts in the unicode. These are not registered in sinhla unicode or SLSI 1134

    THEY HAVE CODE POINTS AND I HAVE ALREADY GIVEN THEM. PLEASE READ MY EARLIER POSTS.

    20.
    ALL AKURU sites of dot lk is registered with ICTA but the pay date is expired I ask this question at Seminar from ICTA Lawyer MR Jayatha Fernando
    He admitted publicly in the seminar ( William Tell Circle March 16 2006) verbally this is an unethical act of ICTA but there is no way to solve it.
    Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will have to mediate but the laws are not passed.
    Then I found that the akuru dot lk’s payment due date has been expired
    I wrote an e-mail to Mr Manju Hatthotuwa requesting him to change the owner ship to me
    Also wrote the same E mail to the ICTA Lawyer Mr Jayatha Fernando.
    I also applied to nic.lk asking for akuru domain as the payment due date has been expired

    IRRELEVANT.

    Now Donald mahattayo,

    I have replied to all your 20 ‘questions’ successfully. Now lete me ask a simple question.

    If you do not agree with Unicode chart give your own way of representing ‘du’ within a 16×8 = 128 matrix. If you cannot do that, accept Unicode is superior and stop arguing.

  40. The topic is not unicode it is ICT myths so answer all correctly and technically you cannot say IRRELEVANT.

    quote”THIS ARTICLE SAYS UNICODE IS INCOMPLETE, BUT IT DOES NOT SAY WHY.”unquote

    We talk of SLSI1134 = sinhala unicode

    SLSI1134- Sinhala unicode deos not have code points for all sinhala characters
    I give one example where are the code points for repaya yansaya in unicode chart or SLSI 1134 chart.

    Quote” JUST BECAUSE YOU CANNOT DO IT ” unquote
    If one cannot use it on all exsisting operating systems there is a real problem with SLSI 1134

    quote
    For Tamil Language if you take the “demala eka kiyaveem potha’ Tamil book one page 48 and 49 gives the matrix of all tamil characters. Give the sinhala equivalent if you can!!!!-unquote
    reply by Helaya
    IRRELEVANT. WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH UNICODE?

    This where helaya has gone wrong he does not know total number of sinhala letters we have in our alpabet. Grade one work

    The topic is not sinhala unicode it is ICT myths so answer

    See who owns gov.lk site
    This leaves us who is the government of Sri Lanka (priu.gov.lk or gov.lk) Is it ICT agency or Presidential Secratariat???

    The topic is not unicode it is ICT myths so answer

    Do you know that google lk is just a hype
    IRRELEVENT. WHY SHOULD I CARE?

    becuase you cannot use sinhala on it!!!!! You cannot avoid it answer correctly

    Do you know that without Sinhala and Tamil the e-SL program itself a hype.

    WRONG. E-SL PROGRAMME ALREADY USES SINHALA AND TAMIL.

    No it is an hype.if you cannot use in google.lk you cannot use in e-SL program.

    IRRERELEVANT. WHAT I HAVE TO DO WITH HELAWADANA AOR ADOBE? THEY ARE PROPERITORY SOFTWARE. ASK THE DEVELOPERS.

    This givse the IT knowledge level of Helaya.

    I ask simple question movement of unformatted sinhala SLSI 1134 text.
    Say you can do it or you cannot do it — technically Harsha should have answered. or any one could post an answer

    Even the limited SMS is based on full characters not parts of characters. am I correct?
    WHY DO YOU WORRY AS LONG AS YOU CAN TRANSMIT THE MESSAGE.

    Because the system differ. using complete characters and glyphs. SMS is not using your SLSI 1134.= Sinhala unicode.
    This also leaves you another problem. Can we use the SMS text in the computer. or send a SMS in Sinhala using SLSI 1134 on the present system

    Sinhala OCR how can you use with SLSI 1134 give examples a application etc
    Where is Voice to sinhala text and sinhala text to voice applications based on slsi 1134

    ISBN 955-98975-0-0. is the only publication is Sri Lanka gives all sinhala characters.

    http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/11/14/bus02.html

    gives IT litercy rate in Sri Lanka . How come it is IRRELEVANT.

    Computer imbroglio in keeping with Sinhala language
    by Aelian de Silva
    This is a very important article for IT and Helaya cannot understand it

    “DU” “GU” “repya’ “yansaya” has no code point in unicode (many more) see charts in the unicode. These are not registered in sinhla unicode or SLSI 1134

    You have not given any code point from the SINHALA UNICODE CHART or SLSI 1134 CHART
    I must see them physically on the chart published in unicode consotium

    akuru dot.lk problems are also related to IT in Sri Lanka you cannot avoid it by answering “IRRELEVANT.”

    Most silly answer is
    Can you give me an correct answer why SLSI 1134 registered four ayannas in unicode.?
    THERE ARE ENOUGH SPACES. SO WE CAN HAVE NOT 4 BUT 20 AYANNAS WE NEED.

    Why not the 2000 other sinhala chareacter went missing in the SLSI 1134!!!!

    Hey please give up answer technically and correctly

    Educated Readers will decide who had asnwered the questions

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  41. Please note that the I never said any thing about UNICODE CONSOTIUM or unicode

    BUT WHAT SRI LANKA SLSI 1134 registered with the unicode and seen on unicode sinhala charts is incorrect and incomplete as they have missed so many sinhala letters.

    Sinhala language has a history over 2000 years. We do have over 2000 individual sinhala characters to be represent in sinhala unicode.

    Until all characters are represented in Sinhala Unnicode I will fight by myself. Hope readers will understand and join me.

    Donald Gaminitilake
    Colombo

  42. Since there are few areas in the discussion where I can shed some light to make those clearer, I would like to add few lines. ( I am not a technologist though I have a PG Dip in Computer Science)
    1. As both parties have agreed the Unicode Character set is the best way to represent Sinhala characters in computers
    2. The technologists and linguists have worked with Unicode Consortium for no of years to come up with the current Character set which conforms to Unicode Standard 4.1.0
    3. CINTEC sought public opinion for this character set and I myself attended one such event held at Hilton Hotel in 2003 representing the Ministry of Public Administration where I was working then
    4. ICTA, once it was established invited and canvassed public opinions for this character set
    5. Having worked to address the issues as far as possible, ICTA worked with industry, academics, linguists, public sector (Names of the members of that committee appeared above) to draft and approve SLSI 1134
    6. Since that was the best solution available to start computing in Sinhala, Re-Engineering Government Programme (of which I became the Director, after Mr. Lalith Weerathunga left to be the Secretary to Prime Minister) adopted the Unicode Character Set for this purpose. We do not want to blame the dark for ever, we try to light few candles at least.
    7. We have installed the Sinhala Unicode Kit for Windows (produced by a team comprising Microsoft, UCSC, Microimage and ICTA) in computers of many govt organizations and they are working fine to meet their day to day computing requirements. The 3,250 computers which will be provided to 350 govt organizations under the “Lanka Govt Network” project (which is scheduled to be rolled out in June 2006) will all be installed with Sinhala Unicode Kit.
    8. Computers installed in all Nenasalas are equipped with Sinhala Unicode Kit. The rural people who use Nenasalas use Sinhala Unicode fonts for their computing needs with out any problems.
    9. We have so far developed more than 30 trilingual websites for govt organizations. Our plan is to develop 200 more such websites. Almost all current sites are equipped with content management tools to provide dynamic info. Some of those websites use MS SQL server and MS Access as the backend db while others use MY SQL. If you have installed Sinhala unicode fonts in your computers, you can view those sites hosted at Govt Internet Data Center (www.gidc.gov.lk). So far no problem is reported in viewing Sinhala or Tamil pages by the people who have Sinhala Unicode fonts.
    10. I have joined two discussion groups one of which uses Sinhala Unicode fonts as the only characters that can be used for posting blogs while other allows English too. I view those Sinhala blogs (written using Uncode fonts) in IE 6 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 with out any problem.
    11. We have requested major database principals such as Microsoft, Oracle, MY SQL, DB2 to incorporate the Unicode Sinhala support and the Sinhala collation algorithm which requires for sorting and serching. Microsoft and Oracle have already started work.
    So these are the local language based actions that we have taken so far to make sure that our eGov work is intended to Sri Lankan public and govt sector.
    I am not an expert to argue whether SLSI 1134 is correct or wrong; but it has so far worked fine for us and experts have assured that all future requirements could be met. Sinhala Unicode is only a tool for us. You have heard that the bad workman fights with his tools. We use our tools (not even to fight with baddies) to provide info and services to citizen and govt.
    Thank you
    Wasantha Deshapriya

  43. Dear Wasantha

    SLSI 1134 was published for public opinion and I objected to it.

    SLSI 1134 was registered under protest and with this set of characters you can use a computer as a typewriter only

    Quote “day to day computing requirements” unquote
    Quote “Nenasalas use Sinhala Unicode fonts” unquote

    as a type writer only.

    Can you use it on excell spread sheet for data sorting?
    Can you transfer text data between any appilcation? on any registered OS system?
    If you cannot do above the SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete

    Quote”
    We have so far developed more than 30 trilingual websites for govt organizations.” unquote
    Web site means one will be able to read the text using any operating system
    Can you give a single site with correct content that I could see from any operating system
    Are these sites are restricted to Microsoft Windows XP only?

    Since it is restricted to Microsoft Windows XP these not web sites but sites only for windows users which is not the objective of the internet.

    quote”I am not an expert to argue whether SLSI 1134 is correct or wrong;”unquote

    I am telling it does not represent all the sinhala characters that we use in Sinhala language
    I cannot accept any SLSI which does not represent all the Sinhala characters.
    All the sinhala characters need proper code points in the unicode.

    Govt Internet Data Center (www.gidc.gov.lk). Talk only of

    example only
    http://www.pensions.gov.lk/ — No SINHALA
    http://www.msd.gov.lk/ — No SINHALA

    see
    http://www.fonts.lk/download/SinhalaIE.html

    reads as
    Sinhala for Internet Explorer 6
    This pack enables Sinhala in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.
    It does not work with older versions of Internet Explorer, or with other browsers.

    This is your SINHALA, and you defend this.
    SLSI 1134 is incorrect incomplete. You all are bluffing the general public including the Hon President of Sri Lanka who is the Minister for IT.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  44. Dear Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya,

    Thank you very much for the post and you have proved beyond any doubt that we can work with Unicode in practical applications.

    As I said before out of the 18,875,000 people in this country 18,874,999 have no problem with Unicode.

    Only one pissa is shouting too much.

  45. I submitted my previous posting only to clarify our stand and explain the members of the forum and general public what we are doing to enable computing in local languages. We try to refrain from getting in to unnecessary debates as it is a waste of time. We are trying to be doers rather than talkers! However as some remarks in Mr. Donald karunathilaka’s blog iare misleading I have the duty of correcting those.

    These are the points.
    1. Quote “day to day computing requirements” unquote
    Quote “Nenasalas use Sinhala Unicode fonts” unquote

    as a type writer only.

    My Reply; This is not true. People use Unicode for making powerpoint presentations, MS Excel sheets, sending emails. For a start I think that is great.

    2. Can you use it on excell spread sheet for data sorting?
    Can you transfer text data between any appilcation? on any registered OS system?
    If you cannot do above the SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete

    My Reply; Yes, we use Sinhala in MS Excell, though it does not support sorting. Microsoft has agreed to include the collation algo in MS Vista. We are very hopeful then most problems related to this issue will be solved. I copy text from MS Word and paste in MS Powerpoint and MS Outlook. I have been doing it for more than a year. I do not see why any body cannot do that.

    3. Quote”
    We have so far developed more than 30 trilingual websites for govt organizations.” unquote
    Web site means one will be able to read the text using any operating system
    Can you give a single site with correct content that I could see from any operating system
    Are these sites are restricted to Microsoft Windows XP only?

    Since it is restricted to Microsoft Windows XP these not web sites but sites only for windows users which is not the objective of the internet.

    My Reply; This is again not completely true. The Sinhala sites are >80% ok with Redhat which is the only one I have personally tried.
    Anuradha Ratnaweera who is working on GNU/Linux has confirmed that they can view Sinhala websites and they are working to improve it with a definite timeline.
    We had a meeting with technologists who are working with Linux, Redhat, Obantu, Dabien and they have concrete plans to enable Sinhala Unicode support.

    4. quote”I am not an expert to argue whether SLSI 1134 is correct or wrong;”unquote

    I am telling it does not represent all the sinhala characters that we use in Sinhala language
    I cannot accept any SLSI which does not represent all the Sinhala characters.
    All the sinhala characters need proper code points in the unicode.

    My Reply; Sinhala lingusts have agreed for the current representation. If I am able to convey all what I have to tell to my audience, without breaking any grammetical rule that is good enough for me.

    5. Govt Internet Data Center (www.gidc.gov.lk). Talk only of

    example only
    http://www.pensions.gov.lk/ — No SINHALA
    http://www.msd.gov.lk/ — No SINHALA

    see
    http://www.fonts.lk/download/SinhalaIE.html

    reads as
    Sinhala for Internet Explorer 6
    This pack enables Sinhala in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.
    It does not work with older versions of Internet Explorer, or with other browsers.

    This is your SINHALA, and you defend this.
    SLSI 1134 is incorrect incomplete. You all are bluffing the general public including the Hon President of Sri Lanka who is the Minister for IT.

    My Reply: http://www.gidc.gov.lk is not to provide examples. That is the proper Govt Internet Data Centre which hosts all websites that we support to develop.

    I can not see why you can not see Sinhala pages in http://www.pensions.gov.lk. The site has a Sinhala button at the top right corner. If you click on that button, you should be able to view Sinhala pages with out any problem.

    Same goes for http://www.msd.gov.lk. I just checked this and it works fine for me.
    Again I have to say, I am not here to defend Sinhala Unicode. My duty is to use the best available tools to implement egov to achieve its objectives. I do not fight with my tools or its creators. If Sri Lanka produces a better language tool for computing we will switch to it (nothing is so far in the horizon). There are so many tools to convert fonts now so it will not be a big problem to switch (just visit ucsc site to see the Unicode font converter.)
    I do not want to bluff as I believe in what I am doing.
    Since this has already taken a considerable chunk of my valuable time, this would be my last blog related to this issue, unless moderator requests for my response.
    Thank you
    Wasantha Deshapriya

  46. Dear Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya,

    Thank you very much for your response and the bold stand you have taken in this issue.

    If anyone reads from top to bottom of this blog, one will find all the answers one is looking for regarding Unicode. All questions – I repeat all questions – including some of the very stupid ones that have been raised by Donald Ducks and Mickey Mice have been answered clearly.

    Now there is no doubt that;

    (a) Unicode Sinhala set is complete and useful
    (b) No Sinhala characters were left in Unicode
    (c) Unicode Sinhala standard can be used successful in creating Sinhala content
    (d) The usefulness of Unicode Sinhala standard is successfully proven and
    (e) We do not need any more standards to compliment Unicode Sinhala standard.

    I think we can close this debate on that note.

    Let us all be intelligent enough to accept the reality.

    We do not expect anyone to issue public apologies and all, but please level us alone now. Sinhala language is now being successfully integrated to computer environment now and this is the time to create the content, as someone has correctly mentioned.

    Finally, we are all grateful for ICTA for the good work it did in this regard. We are very happy that ICTA is now run by people who understand the needs of Sinhale.

  47. HeWhoMustNotBeNamed

    “Somebody mentions about a big old dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus rex, who prevents the dynamic and young professionals to move ahead in the ICT field.”

    Well Dinosour is going to devour whole ICT Agency. His first victim is Manju H.

    Everyone is scared of this dinosour specially small time journalists like me. Dinosor knows how to silence Media in this country.

    We cant say Manju H is 100% correct or good. Only he knows it. But when Dinosur gets into the big seat, he will eat the whole industry.

    This is high time journalists in this country, and the universities to fight against this Dinaosur who devours everything.

    Akuru.org guy should be praised to being bold to reveal who this dinosur is while the whole crowd in the industry keep silence due to fear.

    HeWhoMustNotBeNamed

  48. Donald should come with a plan and do something we can see phisically than only in theory. Anyone can say things and critisize. Why cant he show what he can do as at least a pilot?

    Its true Dinos will never allow Donalds, sciencelands (Thibus), MicroImages, Gihan Dias’s to do anything about Sinhala as Sinhala is Dino’s boodale. Dinos cant do anything than blocking others.

    It was this Dino blocking ICTA as well. By getting Divaina to publish that mud slinging article according to the sources. Who else knows such confidential details if it is not Dino himself? Dino will not die till he gets at least once that 1.6 M salary for himself.

    The best thing ICTA CEO can do is to build a statue of Dino somewhere to please him at this old age. Hopefully with a statue of Donald facing it ha ha haa!!!!

    According to the hottest news in the ICT field Dino will replace Manju Hattotuwa within next 30 days. Donald will have an even stronger barrier. Gihan D will get the axe too. Dino thinks Gihan D stole Sinhalla “boodale” from him to get a place in ICTA and without axing him, there is no survival for Dino.

    Dino has strong support from the top level. Give up fighting Donald. You are in the hit list too.

  49. Good top down reading. This is what happening in Sri Lanka.

    First I must thank Helaya for giving me a number

    quote \\
    As I said before out of the 18,875,000 people in this country 18,874,999 have no problem with Unicode.// unquote

    This protects me by intellectual property act No 36 of 2003 to 100% .

    He mx up unicode and sinhala unicode = SLSI 1134

    The main problem is with SINHALA UNICODE = SLSI 1134 and not unicode consotium.
    UNICODE is not SINHALA UNICODE. Sinhala unicode is one of the registered languages in unicode consotium which is incompele and incorrect.

    Quote from Wasantha
    “The Sinhala sites are >80% ok with Redhat which is the only one I have personally tried.”

    REDHAT is LINUX Operating System. So your Sinhala is only be used with REDHAT not with windows , MAC , and any other operating systems

    Quote from Wasantha “My duty is to use the best available tools to implement egov to achieve its objectives.”unqoute

    Publish in news paper and TV that to use Linux in Sri Lanka ban all other opreating systems!!!!

    Quote from Wasantha
    “Yes, we use Sinhala in MS Excell, though it does not support sorting.”

    This proves SLSI 1134 is incorrect.

    About the typewriter concept

    Wasantha Reply; This is not true. People use Unicode for making powerpoint presentations, MS Excel sheets, sending emails. For a start I think that is great. unqoute

    This clearly prove that SLSI 1134 is a typewriter base system not a computer based SLSI. As he said before — “though it does not support sorting.” —-

    All above facts prove clare;y that SLSI 1134 is only be used as a typewriter
    and only with Red Hat which is linux

    This is not the objective of Internet and Unicode Consotium.

    The code points for all Sinhala Chracters are not listed in the Unicode consortium sinhala chart.

    Therefore the SLSI134 = Sinhala unicode is incorrect and incomplete
    Cannot use in other Operating Systems other than RedHat OS
    Wasantha proved it.

    SLSI1134 has to be revised As soon as possible. Repealed the old SLSI 1134 with immediate effect.

    Quote \\ Since this has already taken a considerable chunk of my valuable time, this would be my last blog related to this issue, unless moderator requests for my response.// unqoute
    by Wasantha

    Wasantha started to write by his own will. When he is lose the game trying to put it on others.
    Unless otherwise the “”Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor and the team”” requested to write.

    Now Wasantha got scared to write into this site becasue I quote The Minister of IT Hon President of Sri Lanka. I wish the Hon President will have the time to look into this site soon evaluate the facts and take a wise decision for the betterment of the cuontry and Sinhala Language.

    The only availabe solution will be 1/18,874,999’s (Donald Gaminitillake) system.
    Using code points for all Sinhala Characters.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  50. Thanks SinhalaLover

    I fight to protect the Language Sinhala.

    I am not scared of any Dino.

    The History would say there was a 1/18,874,999 to expose the truth.

    I am the only person in Sri Lanka published the alphabet of Sinhala in the correct alphabatical order.

    ISBN 955-98975-0-0 (Contents do have Copyright areas & Patent pending areas©2000-2006)

    It is already kept at the National Archives.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  51. Quote
    Donald should come with a plan and do something we can see phisically than only in theory.
    unqoute

    This can be done.

    First accept the error in the SLSI 1134 and the mistake in the present system in public.

    Accept my theory in public.

    The ICTAgency invites me to do a basic system solution based on my code points.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  52. The LIRNEasia website has no moderator. We were surprised that our site became the platform for a lively debate on Sinhala in computing and other things. We are gratified that some of our regular readers and others have chosen our site as their platform.

    The adoption of standards for the use of Sinhala is obviously an important issue for ICT development in Sri Lanka. As a regionally focused research and capacity building organization, this subject does not fall within the scope of our current activities. However, as an individual who has long argued for greater use of Sinhala and Tamil in ICTs, I cannot but agree that it is an important subject.

    I was impressed, on first glance, by the comprehensive response given by Wasantha Deshapriya. This is wonderful I thought: a government official taking the time and trouble to respond to public concern. However, the Sinhala websites that he refers to, and says are perfectly readable to him, I cannot read without downloading fonts. This suggests that work remains to be done.

    It will be useful if the participants can agree on what success means (or at least, propose their criteria of success).

    To me, as a user, it would be the ability read what is on a website without downloading fonts and the ability to sort in a database or spreadsheet. Both these are possible in Thai, a language very similar in structure to Sinhala.

  53. Thank you Dr Rohan for the impartial comments made.

    Wasantha had clearly confirmed that one should use RADHAT ( Linux OS) to see sinhala sites.

    The Solution for Sinhala / Tamil in Sri Lanka need to be used on any platform and on any Operating system.

    Unfortunately the people concern for this issue are using a sunglass and filter the problem.
    Misguide the public and the Hon Minister for IT using ‘REDHAT” OS and making Demonstration.

    SLSI1134 is has to be revised to give code points for all Sinhala characters.

    Present SLSI 1134 = Sihala Unicode is incorrect and incomplets as this has no code points for all sinhala basic characters which is around 2000.

    I have the Solution and with my solution you can use Linux , Microsoft and Apple OS simultaniously and the Data is compatible with any application because all the Sinhala letters have a specific code point to represent in machine language. This will open more job opportunities in software development and in IT industry.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  54. Thank you for Prof Samarajeewa’s comment and telling me that if I commit myself by submitting a blog it is up to me to save my self as no moderator to blow the whistle when I am hit below the belt.

    To answer the issue raised by him, I have to ask a question.
    Is there any Sinhala website, (which is not developed with only images,) which allows you to view the website properly without having to download proprietary/non- proprietary fonts or already having installed such fonts in your computer?
    Answer is no. Currently you have to.
    You said Thais can view their websites without downloading Thai fonts. Not only Thais but all the nations who have worked with major Operating System (OS) owners/manufactures such as Microsoft, Redhat, Linux, Mac, Dabien, Ubantu etc have been able to include their native Unicode character sets to the major OSs to make computer applications such as MS Office, Open Office compatible with local character sets. So, all those major OSs come with Thai and other native Unicode fonts, therefore Thais do not have to download fonts to view their websites.

    To come to that point you have to follow a long path. That is what I tried to explain in my previous blogs.

    Just to re-clarify it I will briefly mention actions taken so far.
    (If you are more interested in the history of Sinhala Unicode you may visit
    http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/history.html)

    1. The latest Sinhala Unicode character set was finalized in 2003-2004 (which was included in Unicode Standard 4.1.0.)
    2. SLSI 1134 which was approved in 1996 was modified in 2004 accordingly to accommodate Sinhala character set included in Unicode standard 4.1.0
    3. ICTA started the discussion with Microsoft in 2004 and build a team to produce a Sinhala Kit which installs the necessary software and keyboard drives in MS Windows (XP and above). The voluntary team was comprised of Microsoft, UCSC and Microimage.
    4. The team finally produced Sinhala Kit version 2 in 2005 which is downloadable freely from http://www.fonts.lk and http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/research/ltrl/index.html. This kit allows you to use Sinhala in all MS applications, switch between Sinhala and English and view Sinhala websites in IE6.
    5. ICTA is working to release the next (more user friendly) version of Sinhala kit in June 2006 which would also be freely downloadable.
    6. Microsoft has assured that Sinhala Unicode language support will be included in MS Vista (the next MS OS) which will be issued in end 2006.( If Prof Samarajeewa opts to use MS Vista, he would not have to download fonts to view Sinhala websites as Fonts and Sinhala support is included in MS Vista.)
    7. “LKLUG Sinhala for GNU/LINUX Project” is providing Sinhala Unicode support for Linux users. Please visit http://www.nongnu.org/sinhala/ for more detail
    8. Already a considerable work has been done with Linux, Redhat, Dabien, Ubantu Operating systems to include Unicode Sinhala support. I am sure we will see Unicode support in all their new OS releases.
    9. Prof Samarajeewa said that language support is useless without the ability of sorting (in Sinhala alphabetical order). Yes, that is true! In order to facilitate that you need the “Collation Algorithm” which tells what letter comes after what letter. The collation algorithm was finalized by the UCSC, 6 months back and given to all major OS and database developers. OS and database developers are working to include Sinhala searching and sorting facilities in their databases and applications. I am sure we will see the expected results before the end of 2006. Oracle has already confirmed it.
    10. I am not going to respond to people who half quote me as “A half quote is a full lie”. But I categorically say Sinhala is currently works fine with both MS Windows XP and most of the Office XP applications. LINUX provides Sinhala Unicode support. Redhat currently provides Sinhala Unicode support to some extent. It’s new release and Open Office version 2 are very close to provide a comprehensive Sinhala Unicode support ( please visit http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html)
    11. I hope Prof Samarajeewa will understand that this is a long process. I am not personally responsible for producing Sinhala Unicode solution. I am only a user. (I know he is not somebody who kills the messenger). I am using Sinhala Unicode solution as it is the best option available and also which would be supported by the future releases of major software. That criterion is good enough for me to use it as the tool to disseminate government information and provide future eServices.
    12. You may have noticed that all our tenders published for software development for eServices included local language support through Sinhala and Tamil Unicode. That means Operating Systems and databases. That tells you how serious and sure we are of providing our information and services through local languages. Our objective is to make sure that the majority of the ICT users of this country will be able to receive our eServices and related information in their native languages without having to download fonts in the future.

    Hope this would have given sufficient information for Prof Samarajeewa to understand that there is definitely some light at the end of the tunnel. (Only people who do not want to see the light can not see it.)
    Thank you again to Prof Samarajeewa for the opportunity. Hope you would be a good jugje to understand who hits below the belt though you can not publicly say so.

    Wasantha Deshapriya

  55. In case you need to see how technical experts have answered all questions raised by people, who do not want to see, regarding the validity of Sinhala Unicode , pls visit
    http://anuradha-ratnaweera.blogspot.com/2006/03/is-sinhala-unicode-incomplete.html

  56. Dear Wasantha

    quote”2. SLSI 1134 which was approved in 1996 was modified in 2004 accordingly to accommodate Sinhala character set included in Unicode standard 4.1.0 ” unquote

    Please go to http://www.unicode.org/charts

    Download the pdf files giving the Sinhala unicode code points

    Answer the following giving only the unicode code point

    1. Where is repays?
    2.Where is yansaya?
    3.Where is “DU”
    4. WHere is “kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President

    I need the answer as follows only. Example

    Ayanna = 0D85 – Sinhala Letter ayanna (this is a registered unicode code point)

    If you are unable to give in this manner the charater or letter is not registered with sinhala unicode

    Also
    1. Why you have four Ayannas registered in Unicode?
    .
    You dont have to be a technical expert to post the answers.
    All one has to do is look at the characters or letters registered in the Sinhala unicode and write down the code point.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  57. Dear Wasantha and other participants, since this is a Blog unlike a moderated forum, we follow very liberal policies as far as defining where the “belt” is. It is only in the rarest of rare instances would we edit or remove someone’s comment. As far as I know, we have never exercised that option yet since the website has been up. There are instances of untrue and malicious comments that have been made on LIRNEasia members on our website, they are still there, we haven’t removed them. [We promptly remove spam though].

    The overall tone of discussions have been fairly civilized and at times when there has been some “friction,” along with some heat some light was also produced! I and colleagues from across the world have been following these discussions with great interest because many substantive issues critical to the success of ICT diffusion in Sri Lanka have been covered here by some of the important players in the field. I hope we can continue to engage with each others ideas…

  58. I am not going to answer any of those qustions due to two reasons. My reasons are
    1. As I said once, I am not here to defend Sinhala Unicode or SLSI 1134 as I am not the creator or owner of both. I am only an user who has cross-checked and realized that Sinhala Unicode is the best tool for my job
    2. As all these questions have been answered at
    http://anuradha-ratnaweera.blogspot.com/2006/03/is-sinhala-unicode-incomplete.html
    That blog says where yansaya, ayanna and all.
    If I am going to re-write all those answers it would take at least few pages.
    More over we will be going to technical points (which have already been answered in the above blog) which will be top of the head of many blog reades here. I have a suggestion for Liernasia to solve this once and for all.
    Since Lirneasia (Prof Samarajeewa’s blog) has also identified this topic as a contemperory important issue, I suggest Liernasia to organize a workshop/seminar and invite the following persons who are involved in Sinhala Unicode creation/propagation as the defendents and any Anti-Sinhala Unicode people to show the maladies/shortcomings of Sinhala Unicode. This would be the only solution to answer all qustions and demonstrate Sinhal Unicode in public.
    1. Prof Samaranayake – to explain the history of Sinhala Unicode as he initiated Sinhala Unicode work at University of Colombo
    2. Prof JB Dissanayake – to expalin linguistic aspects of current Sinhala Unicode character set as he was involved in defining language requirements
    3. Dr Gihan Dias – To explain the progress and of Sinhala Unicode as he was responsible for development of Sinhala Unicode Kit on behalf of ICTA
    3. Representative of Microsoft – to explain Wondow’s compatibility with Sinhala Unicode
    4. Harshula Jayasooriya or Anuradha Rathnaweera – to explain compatibility of Linux/GNU
    5. Redhat representative to explain their work related to Sinhala Unicode
    6. Harsha Purasinghe of Microimage (Helawadana) and Sampath of Scienceland (Thibus) as two leading trilingual software developers for computing in local languages
    7. Representative from DMS to demonstrate the Sinhala sorting capabilities of Oracle which is the largest and most reliable database used over the world
    Liernasia can play the role of the moderator/facilitator. I take the challange of getting the persons mentioned above for the workshop.
    ICTA can organize this but it is not ethical for the defendant to organize his defence. Liernasia could choose a neutral venue.
    Enough arguing about it. Let’s see whether rhetorics have been turned in to action.
    Thanks
    Wasantha Deshapriya

  59. Quote from Wasantha
    “This kit allows you to use Sinhala in all MS applications,” unquote

    Untrue — this will not run on all Microsoft Applications. There are Microsoft applications that run on other operating systems other than Windows. This KIT do have restrictions.

    Quote
    LKLUG Sinhala for GNU/LINUX Project” is providing Sinhala Unicode support for Linux users.
    unquote

    The concept and Objective of Unicode Consortium is the text data has to be compatible with any application and on any Operating System

    SLSI registered a limited number of Sinhala characters in the Unicode Consortium. This is the ROOT problem and nobody answer this ROOT problem because all of them scared of the”Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor .”\

    Quote from Wasantha http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html
    Unquote

    You have given a site when I check the Sinhala the description say
    This project is under construction. It will be ready shortly. Please be patient.

    ——–

    Quote from “”http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb”” UCS
    What are combining characters?

    ……..Some code points in UCS have been assigned to combining characters. These are similar to the non-spacing accent keys on a typewriter.,,,,,,,,,, unquote

    So I prove the point that your SLSI1134 is just a typewriter technology uplifted to a computer.

    Quote from UCS
    Level 2
    Like level 1, however in some scripts, a fixed list of combining characters is now allowed (e.g., for Hebrew, Arabic, Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugo, Kannada, Malayalam, Thai and Lao). These scripts cannot be represented adequately in UCS without support for at least certain combining characters.
    Level 3
    All UCS characters are supported, such that, for example, mathematicians can place a tilde or an arrow (or both) on any character.
    Unquote

    Therefore Sinhala has to go to Level 3. The only publication for Level 3 is Lay out the matrix for all sinhala characters. Only I have done it ISBN 955-98975-0-0 (Contents do have Copyright areas & Patent pending areas©2000-2006)

    Quote from UCS
    Has UCS been adopted as a national standard?

    Yes, a number of countries have published national adoptions of ISO 10646, sometimes after adding additional annexes with cross-references to older national standards, implementation guidelines, and specifications of various national implementation subsets:

    * China: GB 13000.1-93
    * Japan: JIS X 0221-1:2001 etc etc ….
    Unquote

    Korea, China and Japan do have a list of characters more than 128 registered in Unicode. Hope Helaya knows it.

    Our National STD SLSI 1134 is incomplete and incorrect SLSI 1134 has missed many characters the full list is published on ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    Quote from UCS

    So what is the difference between Unicode and ISO 10646?

    …..The Unicode Standard published by the Unicode Consortium corresponds to ISO 10646 at implementation level 3. All characters are at the same positions and have the same names in both standards.
    The Unicode Standard defines in addition much more semantics associated with some of the characters and is in general a better reference for implementors of high-quality typographic publishing systems. Unicode specifies algorithms for rendering presentation forms of some scripts (say Arabic), handling of bi-directional texts that mix for instance Latin and Hebrew, algorithms for sorting and string comparison, and much more. ……. unquote

    Our SLSI 1134 is incapable of Sorting (proved by Wasanta) again I prove it is incomplete and incorrect

    Quote from UCS
    “Both the UCS and Unicode standards are first of all large tables that assign to every character an integer number”
    unquote

    This is why I ask the code points for
    1. Where is repaya?
    2.Where is yansaya?
    3.Where is “DU”
    4. WHere is “kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President

    Above are not registered in Sinhala UNICODE therefore no one can give a specific Sinhala unicode code point or location in the registered TABLE in unicode or ISO10646.

    Only I have published this table for SInhala in my ISBN 955-98975-0-0.

    Quote from UCS
    ‘…..but precomposed characters should be preferred over combining character sequences where available…….”
    unquote

    This also proves my point giving individual code points for all Sinhala characters.
    Hiding the lsit of precomposed characters is not the answer

    Therefore the SLSI 1134 = Sinhala Unicode is incorect and incomplete

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  60. Dear Wasanta

    Quote from Wasanta”
    “I am not here to defend Sinhala Unicode or SLSI 1134”
    uunquote

    If the SLSI 1134 is correct you do not have to defend it. There is a flaw in the SLSI 1134 and you are scared to comment and expose the truth to the general public.

    My questions are not answered. The root basic questions are not answered by any one.
    As I have proved just list from the unicode map the code points. If it is not there the characters are not registered with unicode.

    No need of a oneway workshop just post the truth.

    Remember I am 1/18,874,999 and you have missed!!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  61. Brief response to a specific proposal: “Since Lirneasia (Prof Samarajeewa’s blog) has also identified this topic as a contemperory important issue, I suggest Liernasia to organize a workshop/seminar”

    LIRNEasia has not identified this issue as central to its mission. On the contrary, we clearly stated that “The adoption of standards for the use of Sinhala is obviously an important issue for ICT development in Sri Lanka. As a regionally focused research and capacity building organization, this subject does not fall within the scope of our current activities.”

    We are happy to provide a platform for the debate that came to our site unbidden, but that’s as far as we can go.

  62. “I can not see why you can not see Sinhala pages in http://www.pensions.gov.lk. The site has a Sinhala button at the top right corner. If you click on that button, you should be able to view Sinhala pages with out any problem.”

    Wasantha,

    How on earth you guys expect us to be “decent” when your much boasted Pensinon site http://www.pensions.gov.lk/sinhala/edit_news_events.php shows us only some squeres rather than characters.

    Donald,

    Use a beautuful baby language when you talk to these idiots in ICT industry who get caught pants down of their inefficiency and tom foolery. All these so called idiots know they are wrong and they only want you guys to ask them, “Aney baba oyalage sinhala solutions hondata weda karanne ne. Nughty weda karana epa babo…” This is what Dinos, Samarajeewas and Wasanthas want. They just waste government money on foreign trips and salaries to fool a nation. Why does only one person see this? Why do the others are dead silent? Scared of missing you guys’ next scholarship huh?

    Wasantha, Do not waste your ‘valuble’ time. Go and fly a kite instead. You better wear ur pants well before defending some fool’s work.

    Donald, Use a baby language please. Otherwise your voice will be unheard and you will be easily called a pissa and these real pissas will be given national awards too for their tom foolery.

  63. Hi,

    I noticed this thread recently and was a bit apprehensive to join the discussion because it diverged into many issues.

    I am more than happy to only discuss Unicode Sinhala and SLS1134. There are a few of us who can shed light on why Donald’s assertions are illogical and false, but we are trying to spend our energy on constructive tasks at the moment.

    How do we proceed?

    1) Start a new discussion about the merits of Unicode Sinhala / SLS1134 on another thread @ lirneasia.net
    2) Take the discussion to sinhala@linux.lk mailinglist

    Wasantha, your explanation of the reality of Unicode Sinhala was most commendable. But I suspect Anuradha or I might be the most suitable candidates for continuing this discussion.

    Mr Samarajiva, I was surprised by the naivety of your comment:

    “However, the Sinhala websites that he refers to, and says are perfectly readable to him, I cannot read without downloading fonts. This suggests that work remains to be done.”

    If one installs a MS Windows operating system, the user has no choice but to download and install a Sinhala font regardless of whether it is Unicode Sinhala or the ancient ASCII Sinhala. Even with Donald’s inferior solution, the user would have to install a Sinhala font.

    Regards,
    Harshula

  64. http://www.msd.gov.lk./sinhala/index.php too doesnt work!!!!! Any answers from Wasantha, the Savior of Dino?

    Donald, is Harshula correct?

    If you guys cannot do a font without downloading fonts, can the ICTA or someone contact Microsoft and Linux bigshots to issue a standard????? Sinhala fonts to all OSs so that Prof Sam can stop taking blood pressure tablets?

  65. “If one installs a MS Windows operating system, the user has no choice but to download and install a Sinhala font regardless of whether it is Unicode Sinhala or the ancient ASCII Sinhala. Even with Donald’s inferior solution, the user would have to install a Sinhala font.”

    Those poor people who use Internet at a cybercafe with a limited access username can never read anything on the Net with your solution it seems. Why waste millions of government money if the slution is only for the rich?

    How much would Donald ask from te government to finish the whole solution?

  66. Hi,

    SinhalaLover said: “If you guys cannot do a font without downloading fonts, can the ICTA or someone contact Microsoft and Linux bigshots to issue a standard?????”

    I anticipate you have been misled by Donald, so I’ll try and explain the current situation.

    Unicode Sinhala / SLS1134
    =========================

    We, as a nation, are at a technological transition stage. We are transitioning from numerous incompatible proprietary ASCII Sinhala encodings/fonts to a single, open, free, international Unicode Sinhala encoding/font. Such a commendable long term vision also incurs a great amount of short term pain. And that is what we are feeling at this moment.

    Unicode Sinhala was only finalised/standardised in 2004 and it was done in a very open manner. Therefore, any operating system which was released before 2004 does not by default support Unicode Sinhala. Thus it is logical that MS Windows XP, 2000, 98, 95 do not ship with support for Unicode Sinhala. In fact, nor do they ship with support for ASCII Sinhala because there were so many incompatible encodings/fonts.

    The good news is that the major operating systems released after 2004 will include Unicode Sinhala. Therefore, when MS finally release their next operating system, it will come with the Unicode Sinhala support/font that is needed by Sinhala users. Some of the recent GNU/Linux operating system releases, notably Ubuntu 5.10 (http://www.ubuntu.com/) and Fedora Core 5 (http://fedora.redhat.com/) already ship by default with some Unicode Sinhala support.

    In the short term, MS Windows XP users can download a Sinhala Pack (http://www.fonts.lk/) in order to enable Unicode Sinhala support. Similarly, the GNU/Linux users can improve the default Unicode Sinhala support by downloading appropriate packages (http://sinhala.linux.lk/). Unfortunately, MS Windows 2000, 98, 95 are apparently unable to support Unicode Sinhala.

    We still need to find out the level of Unicode Sinhala support in Apple MacOS X.

    Significant organisations like ICTA, UCSC, LKLUG, Microsoft have been co-ordinating over a period of years to bring Unicode Sinhala to fruition. We are no longer at the start of our journey, nor have we reached our destination, but our destination is in sight and we are making steadfast progress.

    Donald
    ======

    Donald is very passionate about Sinhala, but his passion is far greater than his technical competence. Anuradha and I have attempted to explain to Donald how Unicode Sinhala works more than a year ago, but he doesn’t have the capacity to understand. Therefore, I implore those with a passion for Sinhala language usage in computing to ask us any questions or voice any concerns. I’m confident you will have the required capacity to understand Unicode Sinhala, unlike Donald.

    I assert that Donald’s scheme is technically inferior to Unicode Sinhala. eg. It will not allow Pali touching letters, from Buddhist texts, to be used with computers. Furthermore, if you wait for Donald’s so-called solution, you won’t see it in your lifetime, because he doesn’t have the technical skills to implement it. Those with the technical skills to implement Sinhala support understand that Unicode Sinhala is far superior to Donald’s scheme.

    SinhalaLover said: “Those poor people who use Internet at a cybercafe with a limited access username can never read anything on the Net with your solution it seems.”

    This is an unfortunate misconception. To enable Unicode Sinhala, you only need to download and install the support *ONCE* after the operating system has been installed. In your example, the computer administrator would download the Unicode Sinhala support pack and install it on all the machines in the cybercafe after installing the operating system. Then the user would come along and use it without even realising that they are using Unicode Sinhala.

    What we need to do now is to encourage anyone and everyone to install the Unicode Sinhala support pack on their operating systems.

    If there is one thing, we as a nation can be proud of in our recent history, it is the long term vision to move to Unicode Sinhala with the full knowledge of the short term pain.

    Regards,
    Harshula

  67. “install a Sinhala font.”

    The issue here is not FONT or FONTS
    Font is an artist product of a character ( “TYPE FACE”) . For example
    to use English we have Latin fonts “TIMES” “Helvetica” etc

    Technically I am talking about the “type faces”. ( These type faces are
    registered and defined as code points in UNICODE-
    http://www.unicode.org/charts/ )

    Example definition in UCS (Universal Multiple – Octet Coded Character
    Set)
    English Character -TYPE FACE – “A”
    ISO/IEC 10646-1
    Table 1 – Row 00 – Basic Latin Code point 1004 – Latin Capital letter A

    Like wise for SInhala we have few code points registered with unicode rest of the characters or letters are not registered with unicode.

    This is the main issue of SLSI 1134 = Sinhala unicode

    A FONT is defined as a complete assortment of any one size and style
    of “type” containing all characters for setting ordinary composition.

    In digital world “any one size” or “style” becomes limitless —
    electronically we can produce any size to the ….n th value.

    If we just get into the history.
    We had Sinhala Letter Press individual lead characters. There was an
    engineer called Wijesekera and he developed the Sinhala Type writer.
    Type writer has a limited space and he included and derived a method to
    break up Sinhala individual characters and placed them in certain
    locations in the type writer key board. We have to give credit to
    Wijesekara for his work.

    We all steped into electronic era sometime in late 80’s.
    The people who got involved had no knowledge in Printing Industry or
    Typology or Typography.

    They were faced with a problem of Ascii limitation of 256 (one byte)
    and the Sinhala type writer.
    Out come of it was SLSI 1134.(it took well over 12 years to make this
    incomplete SLSI 1134)
    This is incorrect and incomplete set of Sinhala Characters

    I objected to the SLSI 1134 but my objections were over ruled by the
    committee without giving any specific reasons.
    SLSI 1134 went ahead with the part of the characters (glyphs) to
    construct a character.
    This is an acute problem.
    Text created by one application will not read as the same text in
    another application — etc etc.

    Anu and Harsula always say of a character sequences
    but

    Quote from UCS
    “Both the UCS and Unicode standards are first of all large tables that assign to every character an integer number”
    unquote

    Quote from UCS
    ‘…..but precomposed characters should be preferred over combining character sequences where available…….”
    unquote

    Character sequences work with a typewriter technology upgraded to a computer not on proper Level 3 system

    The gruop always talk about Linux solutions where the plain text is not compatible woth other operating systems

    This is because our national standard registered a limited number of letters or characters in SLSI 1134 which is Sinhala Unicode.

    Quote”How much would Donald ask from the government to finish the whole solution? ”
    unqoute

    First let ICTA accept that there is a error in SLSI 1134.
    Then invite me to do the correction and give the solution.

    I can give a time frame 12 to 18 months I will complete the job

    Cost depends on how ICTA gives me the project
    Will I be Staff of ICTA? or a Private Solution provider?

    In my system I have to pay royalties and copyright fees to other developers. There $$ fees differ how I handle the project.
    Part of the project to be done in Sri Lanka and the other part has to be done abroad.

    Quote
    I assert that Donald’s scheme is technically inferior to Unicode Sinhala. eg. It will not allow Pali touching letters, from Buddhist texts, to be used with computers
    Unquote

    Who said so? Have you seen my book? ISBN 955-98975-0-0.
    I have given the pali joint letters from the pali dictionery.
    Even if I had missed several still one can add them easily as the upper number is 64.000

    In my system you can go up to 64,000 letters per one block in two byte.
    If you need all combine letters which would be around 490,000 still I can make it at 512,000 locations.

    First go through the list in ISBN 955-98975-0-0 and tell me how many characters are missing and in which old book has the missing character, (name of the book location of the book and the page number is required – or a photocopy is required)

    See the SLSI 1134 = sinhala unicode chart compare with ISBN 955-98975-0-0. see how many characters are missing in the SLSI 1134.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  68. Some of those who post here have hidden agendas. On the first look it appears they want to talk about the so-called ‘problems’ regarding Unicode etc. (I have already shown no such problems exist. Sinhala Unicode is prefect and it has no issues at all.) The real objective of these people is to sling mud at Prof. Samaranayake by calling names like Dinosaur, dino, old man etc.

    Guys, you can call any name to Prof., but let me tell you this. You might call Prof. a b*stard, but remember he is our b*stard. He is a Sinhalese Buddhist who recognizes the problems faced by Sinhale and he knows how to address them. He is not an agent of Catholic mafia like some of the key figures in local ICT field.

    ICTA was ruled by the Catholic mafia once and Prof. was the one who bravely attacked that mafia. So now the mafia wants to attack this brave academic who is obviously the biggest threat to them. That is the well hidden agenda behind this so-called Unicode issue. We need to find the real people behind the Donald Ducks. The ones who contribute here are only pawns. We have to find the people behind them and we have to understand their objectives.

    We do not need lessons from Catholic mafia on how to select our heritage. Sinhala is our language and we know how to protect it.

    It is the duty of every Sinhalese Buddhist to protect Prof. Samaranayake from the attempts of Catholic mafia to attack Prof. Samaranayake.

  69. I am more an outsider nowadays, but I find this blog very interesting. It presents different view points about the ICT developments in Sri Lanka.

    The initiative taken by Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya in responding is commendable. That is what we expect from the new breed of the public servants. Part of the mission of ICTA is to change the way the government thinks and works. We do not want the typical red tape bureaucrats in government organizations. We want people who listen to us and openly discuss the issues. Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya shows his own commitment to achieve that objective, not by merely preaching but by example. Hats off to him.

    Why not the other officials at ICTA to come up and present their views on the topics discussed? It will be great if they can. This blog will be extremely useful to the readers if they do so.

    For a start can we have the input from Prof. V. K. Samaranayake to this blog? I am sure he will be happy to contribute. As far as I know, Prof. Samaranayake is someone who always encourages the open content and open discussions and I am sure he will find this a good opportunity to express his views, especially on Unicode. I am confident Prof. Samaranayake too belongs to the new breed of public servants who wants to change the way the government works and thinks for ages. So he will surely contribute.

    Let us listen what Prof. Samaranayake has to say.

  70. Hi Helaya

    Quote
    We need to find the real people behind the Donald Ducks.The ones who contribute here are only pawns. We have to find the people behind them and we have to understand their objectives.
    Unquote

    When Helaya lose the debate he sees the Mother Mary and the Christ in his/her dreams.
    That is why he gets exsited to comment about other religons.

    With your SLSI 1134 no one can publish any Buddhist Book or a Christain Book. Most of the SInhala letter are missing in the SLSI 1134 = Sinhala Unicode.

    The group behind me are the readers of this site, http://www.akuru.org site who are very much educated than you and your “Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor beyond the age of seventy” also who have a very much higher level of Functional Literacy.

    Sri lanka has a very low Functional Literacy rate. This include the university professors etc.
    Functional Literacy is not my subject but people like Dr Chandana Jayaratne are fully involved to develop Functional Literacy in Sri Lanka.

    — “One good example of functional Illiteracy is when the sea retreated during Tsunami the people ran towrds the sea but when a similar incident happened in late 1940 the people ran towards the hills” —-

    This is the main reason that people like Helaya educated to the very high level but unable to understand Errors and the limited functions of SLSI 1134. When losing a battle focus the attractions on a non relavent subject like religon.

    I ask him another questions name SINHALA – ENGLISH DIctioneries published from 1830 downwards with the names of the authors.
    Our Buddhist Flag was desinged by a born Christian and an American Cornel Olcott. (Later became a Buddhist) So what is the Heritage that Helaya is talking of.

    I will give the answer

    A Sinhala – English Dictionery was written by Rev B Clough and was first published in 1830. Second revised edition was published in 1936.(reprints are available at Asian Educational Services NewDelhi) The second Sinhala – English Dictionery was by published by Rev Charles Carter of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1924.(reprints are available at Asian Educational Services NewDelhi) I found that there was a very old Sinhala – English Dictionery by Mudliyer A Mendis Gunersekera.(unable to find a copy) The other Sinhala – English Dictionery published in 1948 (Dharma Samaya Printers) is by A P de Zoysa a Lawyer by profession with a Ph D.

    I Cannot find a good SInhala – English Dictionery today. Even your G P Malalasekera has not done a Sinhala- English Dictionery. He has done English – Sinhala Dic only

    This is the truth . It is up to the readers to decide and support me to protect our language Sinhala from Functionally Illliterate peeple like HELAYA and “”Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor””.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  71. People can go on arguing about Unicode till the cows come home, but I do not see the key issue addressed.

    What we all need is not another Unicode Font set. What we need is a standard. Basically, from the user’s point of view all what we need is the ABILITY TO USE SINHALA IN COMPUTERS *WITHOUT DOWNLOADING* A SET OF FONTS.

    If we have to download fonts every time we want to work that is not obviously not a standard.

    For example, take the BBC site.

    If you click at http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/ you see a page with Tamil characters. You do not have to download anything.

    If you click at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bengali/ you see a page with Bengali characters. You do not have to download anything.

    If you click at http://www.bbc.co.uk/nepali/ you see a page with Nepali characters. You do not have to download anything.

    However, when it comes to Sinhala, everyone wants us to DOWNLOAD, DOWNLOAD and DOWNLOAD one set of the fonts or another.

    So it is clear that after spending so much of money ICTA has made only another set of fonts, but not a standard. If it has made a standard we could have been able to use it in any environment (Linux, Windows etc) WITHOUT DOWNLOADING and getting it installed in your PC. That is what we mean by a standard. Otherwise what ICTA has done is to introduce another set of fonts (free of charge of course) but it has not become a standard. Introducing another set of fonts is not a difficult task. Any small software company can do that. We do not need ICTA for that.

    We need ICTA to talk to big guys like Microsoft and make a standard and introduce Sinhala into their Operating Systems so we do not have to download a set of fonts every time we want to work in Sinhala. Unfortunately I do not see that has been done so far.

  72. Sorry if I am barging in. I may not come back again. This was good reading for a casual surfer looking for something on fonts. However, I felt compelled to chip in:
    First, I understand this is about Sinhala that is used also to write Pali? I’ve seen a manuscript at a museum in Dallas, Texas.

    Someone here said that they cannot use Sinhala at a Cyber café. That’s true. Unless the Cyber café is in Sri Lanka, you won’t be able to read Sinhala fonts. (In most cases the manager wouldn’t have authorization to install software on computers).

    I have installed a computer at a Thai Wat. It originally did not have Thai font because we bought CDs at a local store. I had to install Thai font support using an OS disk that was bought in Thailand. Even the MS Office disks had to be the ones from Thailand.

    So, it is best for someone going abroad to use English, or anglicize your language. Maybe there will be questions about how to pronounce a word, ambiguities etc. I know that Pali uses a lot of dental t and d that English does not have. Somebody said that Sinhala is similar. Maybe you can put together an alphabet using European keyboard that allows many accents. That might allow you to make a decent alphabet using Roman characters — for travelers. If you get a really good romanized alphabet, then you can create OpenType font for it that has glyphs of your language in place of roman characters. Then you can write home using roman keyboard and in Sri Lanka, you could read in the native script! Unicode compliant type has ways to show complex language glyphs and even context sensitive rendering, if you smart people want to do.

    Keep it cool.

    Metta

  73. SinhalaLover wrote,

    “Gihan D will get the axe too. Dino thinks Gihan D stole Sinhalla “boodale” from him to get a place in ICTA and without axing him, there is no survival for Dino.”

    Is this true? I find Gihan’s profile has been taken out from the ICTA team. I thought Gihan and Dino were good buddies and they worked together on so many ‘initiatives’. Well, I may be wrong.

  74. Let me come back to a point I have raised earlier.

    Now this blog has gone to over seventy posts. Interestingly, it runs in the site of an organization, which according to its head Prof. Samarajeewa has only a minute interest in the topics discussed here, in its regional mission.

    Some of you might have noticed there is another similar thread on ICT is Sri Lanka going on at http://www.moju.lk, which again has nothing to do with ICT in Sri Lanka.

    Why do we continue to talk about ICT in Sri Lanka in places where it is of little relevance?

    THIS IS BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE ANY OTHER PLACE TO TALK THESE ISSUES.

    The hypocrites in ICTA talk so much about openness and open content (They even organise seminars on OPEN CONTENT! My foot!) but they do not provide us an online platform to talk. So Donalds, Helayas, Yudhisdaras, SinhalaLovers and myself all gather wherever we can to talk these issues.

    Can ICTA at least do this?

    PLEASE PROVIDE US, THE ORDINARY PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY, A PLATFORM TO TALK ABOUT THE ICT RELATED ISSUES. NO CENSORING PLEASE. WE WANT TO TALK OPENLY. WE WANT EVERYONE IN THE ICT FIELD IN SRI LANKA TO CONTRIBUTE. WE DO NOT WANT THAT TO BE SOMEONE’S “BOODALE”. WE DO NOT WANT DINOS TO CONTROL ITS CONTENT.

    ICTA officials, if you believe in OPEN CONTENT please do this for us.

    Give us an online platform to discuss issues related to ICT openly and independently. If you say you have successfully introduce Sinhala/Tamil into PCs give us the facility to write in Sinhala/Tamil too.

    So we can leave poor Prof. Samarajeewa alone and take this blog there…

    Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya, art thou listening?

  75. Dear Dharma

    If you read the source code for the BBC page you will find the fonts are downlaoded into your computer without your knowledge. I cannot colour it for you.

    Quote from BBC souce codes”

    function PopWin() {
    popupwindow = window.open(‘http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/includes/modules/fontdownload.shtml’,’fdgdfg’,’toolbar=no ,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no, menubar=no,resizable=no,width=436,height=540,left=200,top=150′);
    }

    unquote

    Same way you will be able to read SInhala news on “http://www.lankaenews.com/”

    Sri Lanka Standards Institution = SLSI
    Sri Lanka Standards Institution made a standard for SInhala called SLSI 1134
    This is incorrect and incomplete set of Sinhala Characters then registered it with UNICODE CONSORTIUM

    This is why we are unable to read and write sinhala like any other language.

    Unfortunately you all have misunderstood the problem.
    Please do not mix Fonts and the Standard.

    The Fonts are made by software developers based on a Standard. If the Standard. is worng what you get is incorrect.

    Jan kennespick has got to the problem.
    Since there is no proper Standard the Sinhala or Pali text created in US is distorted when some one access it in SRi Lanka.

    I am addressing this issue. Data is not compatible across the platforms like other languages.

    All because SLSI 1134 is incorrect & incomplete.
    This probelm is created by our Functionally Illliterate Emeritus Professor!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  76. Donald,

    [Quote] If you read the source code for the BBC page you will find the fonts are downlaoded into your computer without your knowledge. [unquote]

    This is exactly what I want. Why cannot we have that in Sinhala if we can have it in Tamil, Bengali and Nepali (and many other similar Indian languages)?

    Is this the problem you find with SLSI 1134?

    Why cannot the Unicode Sinhala developers follow the Lankaenews example and let us read in Sinhala WITHOUT MANUALLY DOWNLOADING the fonts?

    If I can do that I will be fully satisfied. You experts worry on technical issues. We users only want something we can use. We have neither time nor inclination to worry about technical issues.

    We only want a solution.

  77. Dear Dharma

    Becasue the SLSI 1134 is incomplete and incorrect the web developers will have to have their own set of fonts in the daqta base to show Sinhala

    Unlike English or German or Japanese or Korean you will not be able to use this Sinhala text in your word file or in Adobe illustrator document.

    The text data is not compatible. The standard has to be revised to accomodate all the Sinhala characters giving a proper code points. Once you do it you can have one set of fonts in your computer and read any Sinhala web page. You will be able to see it with your default set of Fonts but if you really wants to see the design of the web developer you will have to down load the font set specified by the developer

    In English some use “verdena” some use “Times” some may still use “FUTURA” etc.

    BUT the content of the text remains same. whther you use Times, Verdena or Futura

    With SInhala the content change with the set of FONTs. This is because the fonts are not develop according to a standard. THE SLSI 1134 is incomplete and incorrect.

    When I point this out the guys who developed the SLSI get very angry and try to prove they are correct. Nobody understand the issue. Sri Lanka has not developed a proper SLSI to accomodate all Sinhala characters.

    That is why I always ask  the code points for
    1. Where is repaya?
    2.Where is yansaya?
    3.Where is “DU”
    4. WHere is “kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President
    and many more letters or characters

    Above are not registered in Sinhala UNICODE therefore no one can give a specific Sinhala unicode code point or location in the registered TABLE in unicode or ISO10646.

    Only I have listed them in my ISBN 955-98975-0-0 (Contents do have Copyright areas & Patent pending areas©2000-2006)

    Let me know your snail mail address to post one.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  78. Now I am confused.

    LTTE has Nitharsanam (http://www.nitharsanam.com) in Tamil.

    How come Tamil users do not face any of these problems you people talk about? Why only us?

  79. Dear Dharma

    #
    Nfhl;ilAk; R l;ilAk; fsw;wp vwpe;JNghl;L Nfhtzj;Jld; kq;fs Nehh;Nt gazk;. ?

    This is what I see.

    You need the tamil font

    you need

    @font-face { font-family: Bamini; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; src: url(BAMINI0.eot); }

    Bamini font to read this page.

    And font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; (these are normally availble in the system

    Do not get confused Please talk to me

    This problem is there for all indic languages. Once I solve the SInhala I will move into other languages

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  80. HeWhoMustNotBeNamed

    Q: When you badly want to blast the Ayathanaya that is in charge of modern day technology but you still do not have enough information whom should you contact?????????

    A: SAM THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, he is the LOKU NILAME at Ayathanaya and who knows better than the LOKU NILAME? He also has no problems in sharing that information with you.

    In fact, our good ole SAM THE MAN has shared all dirt with a journalist from Divaina to throw mud at each one at Ayathanaya. This funny article had accused everyone at Ayathanaya specially its PUNCHI NILAME but surprisingly said nothing at all about its elderly LOKU NILAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Ever wonder why SAM THE MAN doing this????????????????????

    Because SAM THE MAN has buried truckloads of Korean Won in his backyard!!!!! This is what he has earned for his hard and honest work as the head of a certain Technical Evaluation Committee.

    Now when the things go wrong SAM THE MAN can easily hide in his shell and point fingers at others. “…..See meyala, I only take 300K and why do you search Korean Won only in my backyard, why don’t you ask about the US Dollars others have buried in their backyards?”

    But the days seems to be not too good for SAM THE MAN because a little bird whispers somebody is going to take some files to some Commission, which is famous to looking for such hidden treasures in backyards, Korean or not.

    So probably our SAM THE MAN too will spend his last days where SB was sometime back, at the expense of tax payers, probably teaching Computer Science to his fellow inmates. The inmates will be really lucky to learn from a learned academic of that subject.

    But then who will be the LOKU NILAME at Ayathanaya?

    Why not we propose the name of Donald? Of course he is very passionate about the modern technologies and isn’t it better to replace one nut case with another nut case?

    Of course, then Donald will shut up and we all can live in peace.

  81. My Gosh! Can Donald be the Chairman of ICTA?

    I think Donald is either a very confused human being or someone who talks in a language that nobody else understands. Perhaps, an alien from Mars.

    As users all we need is the ability to use Sinhala in PCs *WITHOUT MANUALLY DOWNLODING AND INSTALLING* fonts every time. The fonts should be embedded in our systems. (Like English and Tamil fonts.) If this is done we are happy.

    We do not worry about Unicodes, Harshulacodes and Donaldcodes. As users we need a simple solution.

    Why not Donald invite current Chairman of ICTA to a dinner at his place, have a nice chat over a beer and settle this issue once and for all? So we all can be happy.

  82. Dear Dharma

    quote
    The fonts should be embedded in our systems
    unquote

    For the developers to make the fonts the standared has to be made.
    Computer works on codes. SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete. That is why you have to download fonts to see sinhala and the text (SINHALA) on one font set will not read as the same in another font set.

    Like English (LATIN SCRIPT) the code points to be allocated to all Sinhala characters (ISBN 955-98975-0-0 ) the problem will get solved automatically.

    Emeritus Professor and his group cannot jump to this side as 1/18,874,999 is protected by the INtellectual Property act No 36 of 2003. Part !V Chapter XI definitions clarly specify ….an idea of an inventor which permits in practice the solution to a specific problem in the field of Technology…”

    The difference is 1/18,874,999 get the credit and the copyrights not the Emeritus Professor!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  83. Sandya there is an open forum where you can even start your own topic on Sinhala:
    http://groups.google.com/group/SinhalaUserGroup?lnk=srg

    To write in English on Sinhala seems pretentious and I regret that.

    Messages by Dharma and Jan wakes us up to the realities of the problem we are facing. India went through the entire path and now says Unicode does not bring the expected benefits.

    First, it is hard to tell anything new to Sri Lankan gentlemen without expecting a barrage of insults. I’d tell those fine gentlemen to please hold back the insults because that does not help.

    So, please take a deep breadth and read on.

    In short, Unicode breaks us away into an isolated group of Internet users. If you go abroad as a student, you should buy your own PC to send messages back in Sinhala. University Center computers (in the US) have only English and Roman characters. Besides, 19 million, out of which perhaps 6 million, is a very small number of Sinhala users of computers and then even a smaller number would be using the Internet. There’s not much to do in a Sinhala only Internet.

    We are just like one of those Western European countries — population wise. There is not enough economies of scale to develop anything that’s sustainable, unless you are bilingual with English (or German).

    However, if we also handle it like one of those small countries, we might enter the world of the future pretty easily because our literacy rate is as good as the west. We can sell to the west — fonts, PC applications and a whole host of things. It is going to be like the social upheaval caused by the emigrant Middle East workers making the establishment to grumble about not having servants and baases.

    The way we are approaching this problem is the typical socialist way. The English speaking elite is discussing what is best for the poor natives — just a snobbish condescending attitude handed down by the British masters. Where are the opinions of the people that we presume that need help? We have a split society in Lanka. I implore you TRY to write in Sinhala in here. You say there is no way to write in Sinhala? Read on, please.

    I am a person who was forced to learn English by full immersion when I was promoted to the 9th grade English stream Science class in a government aided school. The teachers were Jaffna Tamil Indian graduates that did not understand Sinhala. We were forced to use English from day one. It took me and my Sinhala classmates only 3 months to outsmart the Burghers, Malays and Moors in everything except English speech. My mother was a Godey woman who spoke only Sinhala and my father wore the redde and wore konde. If you can remember stories of yester year, you’d understand. Those people fought the British, worked to protect the culture while the government produced government servants — servants of the British Raj. My parents were proud Sinhalese.

    Now, if you could take a deep breadth, let me propose:

    We first need to make the Internet available to the schools, libraries, temples and churches for free. It is not costly to install. Maintenance is practically free. Install DSLAMs (DSL Multiplexes) at the telephone exchangers. It’s not hard. I do this as part of my work all the time. Obtain Internet connections via satellite or over telephone lines to the Exchangers. Let the subscriber institutions buy modems and install networks on their own. (Begging and doling out is not good for self-esteem). Ronja light beam WAN lines are extremely low tech, cheap ways to propagate the Internet signal. Read http://ronja.twibright.com/.

    The Internet does not need high powered Windows XP. Just Linux systems are all that are necessary.

    Here’s a tested European-style romanized Sinhala alphabet:
    To be able totype all these characters, extend the US-English kleyboard to US-International.

    VOWELS
    a aa æ ææ i ii
    u uu e ee o oo
    CONSONANTS
    k kh g gh ñ Velars
    c ch j jh ç Postalveolars/palatals
    t th d dh µ Alveolars
    þ þh ð ðh n Dentals
    p ph b bh m Bilabials
    y r l v approximants
    z x s h fricatives
    ø Muurdhaja layanna
    á í ú ó binduva
    ä visarjaniiya

    This is derived from the Icelandic/Old English alphabet. This alphabet was tried and tested for nearly 3 years now. The entire Tipitaka is being transliterated to it under the supervision of a multi-national committee (Sinhala, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and American). Just remember that p and þ are two different characters just like n and h. It is not perfect. The sanyaka akuru cannot be written unabbiguously. I propose ág, µd, nð and mb maybe enclosed inside square brackets. Fonts can easily fix this by context sensitive substitution. Read Unicode papers and MS Fontography.

    Let me promise something:
    LEAVE IT TO THE KIDS TO LEARN ENGLISH. THEY’LL DO IT ON THEIR OWN!!
    Necessity, curiosity can all be satisfied by the great equalizer — the Internet. Now, you say, what about Unicode Sinhala. I say, make fonts on top of the above alphabet. I can type Sinhala directly without using keypad. My computer is permanently set to US-International just like the Europeans do. So, if you change the shape of the letter ‘a’ to ayanna or k to hal kayanna in your font, you have a ISO-8859-1 based alphabet. If German Fractur can use Latin-1 code though the characters are not Roman, why can’t Sinhala? Nobody says we cannot.

    Here’s a quote from the Unicode Tech intro found at
    http://www.unicode.org/standard/principles.html
    “The Unicode Standard does not define glyph images. The standard defines how characters are interpreted, not how glyphs are rendered. The software or hardware-rendering engine of a computer is responsible for the appearance of the characters on the screen. The Unicode Standard does not specify the size, shape, nor style of on-screen characters.”

    This is the innocent paragraph endorses the Directors of Unicode to make proprietary rendering Engines such as Microsoft Uniscribe. It is even licenses to Linux. We can get MS to support Latin-1 based Sinhala.

    May I ask your generous permission for little Sinhala that I invite you to figure out: (Complain about the Z. But it does not massacre two languages at the same time like ‘Sri’. There is no such phoneme as s-r-i in Sinhala or English!). watch that þ! it is not p.

    zrii lákaa maaþaa

    apa zrii lákaa namoo namoo namoo namoo maaþaa
    sunðara siri barinii surænði aþi soobha maana lákaa
    ðhaanya ðhanaya neka mal palaþuru piri jaya bhuumiya lákaa

    apa hata sæpa siri seþa saðanaa jiivanayee maaþaa
    piliganumæna apa bhakþi puujaa namoo namoo maaþaa
    apa zrii lákaa namoo namoo namoo namoo maaþaa

    obavee apa viðyaa
    obamaya apa saþyaa
    obavee apa zakþii
    apa haða þula bhakþii

    oba apa aalookee
    apagee anupraanee
    oba apa jiivanavee
    apa mukþiya obavee

    nava jiivana ðeminee niþina apa pubuðu karan maaþaa
    jçaana viirya vadavamina rægena yanu mæna jaya bhuumi karaa

    eka mavakage ðaru kæla bævinaa
    yamu yamu vii nopamaa
    preema vadaa sæma bheeðha ðuræralaa
    namoo namoo maaþaa
    apa zrii lákaa namoo namoo namoo namoo maaþaa

  84. If the ageing dinosaur, a.k.a. Sam the Old Man, is corrupt, why not report him to the Commission on Bribery and Corruption? Somebody should, even if the Commission is not well known for its rigorous investigations. This is serious stuff, with US$ 52 million World Bank funds given to the government and people of Sri Lanka for ICT sector development. This man heads the Board (which currently lacks other members) that controls these and other donor funds. We should take a very dim view of corruption, whether it is committed by rana viru generals or by father-of-ict ancient academics. Corruption must be exposed, and its perpetrators must be suspended from office pending investigations and then prosecuted.

    It will be interesting to see if the large number of political IUOs collected by this Sam will come into his use in this instance.

    This is the Isle of CheeLanka where anything is possible and everything is decided by connections. It was not too long ago that another despicable rotten old Sam — who was once the so-called Duk Ganna Raala of the state and held other senior public offices — was caught red-handed having drawn two public sector pensions for 15 years! This is a criminal offence in any country, but here in CheeLanka, the nasty old (other) Sam managed to push it all under the carpet. The Island newspaper that boldly exposed this corruption was quickly silenced by using Sam’s political and family connection with the newspaper’s owners — blood is indeed thicker than ink. And as far as we know, the Victorious Lion Sam is still drawing two pensions, and laughing all the way to his bank….

    Strange, isn’t it, that The Island/Divaina group is ever ready to launder the misdeeds of nasty old Sams?

  85. I have followed this exchange with interest, and posted one comment earlier (No 14) on the mismanagement of dot lk domain. Except for Sandhya Herath, others don’t seem to have taken much interest in this vital issue.

    As much as I agree with our passionate advocate Donald on Sinhala unicode standardisaton, which is an issue he is more than capable of taking forward, I want to draw attention to other concerns and issues in the Sri Lankan ICT sector.

    Let me begin with a personal experience. Last year, my company tried to use an electronic payment gateway service offered by reputed service providers in Singapore, HongKong and UK. We have an e-commerce website where we wanted facility for people to pay using credit cards in a secure payment system. Each payment gateway operator turned us down, because we are a company based in Sri Lanka, which they politely informed us is a country blacklisted for inadequate legal provisions and safeguards for e-commerce. This was less than a year ago.

    We can’t be the only party that has been affected by this. There must be dozens of companies based in Sri Lanka whose pursuit of the cyber opportunities must be constrained due to this most unsatisfactory situation. I am aware that CINTEC and then ICTA have been tinkering with the necessary legal and regulatory framework for years and years, but (whatever their excuse), things haven’t moved forward.

    And here’s an extract from the Digital Review of Asia Pacific, 2005/2006 edition, to which I wrote the Sri Lanka chapter (text finalised in mid 2004, but much of it is still valid and relevant today as it was then). Since the publication is not freely available online, I am taking the liberty of posting this short extract. For the full chapter (downloadable by payment) and ordering the book, please see: http://www.digital-review.org/

    I understand that some people at the ICTA were quite unhappy about the independent assessment I gave in this chapter, about ICTA and e-Sri Lanka’s failures. However, in typical Sri Lankan style, they have been whispering in corners and complaining to the publisher, but never once engaged me directly. I am still open and willing to engage them in an open, published dialogue.

    I would also like to draw your attention to a recent speech I gave at an international ICT workshop in Colombo, delivered in the presence of the current ICTA Chairman who was in the chair (he never openly disagreed with anything I said!). Speech published online at: http://www.akuru.org/nalaka/nnn2/ICT.htm

    * * * * *
    EXTRACT BEGINS HERE AND GOES TO THE END OF THIS POST:

    Taking ICT to villages: A string of failures

    “Sri Lanka is a developing country with a high level of human development. With a UNDP human development index of 0.73, ranking it 99 among 173 countries in 2001, it does stand apart from all its South Asian neighbours. It has an adult literacy rate of 90.1 percent, infant mortality rate of 11 per 1,000 live births, and a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 14.5. Only 6 percent of the population of 19 million earns less than US$1 per day.

    “When it comes to bridging the digital divide, however, Sri Lanka has a dismal and disappointingly backward record. Among the fundamental factors that keep Sri Lankan society digitally divided are the high capital and operating costs, lack of infrastructure, absence of enabling policies and laws, and failure to produce standardised local language fonts and locally relevant content. Unfortunately, the few initiatives – by the government, academia or civil society groups – have also largely failed to make appreciable impacts. Three such notable failures are analysed here.
    One of them is the Kotmale Internet radio project, which is widely cited as trying to take ICT to the village.

    “Established in 1999, it used a “community radio” service to bring the World Wide Web closer to its listeners. A daily two-hour interactive radio programme allowed listeners to request (by live telephone or by post) specific information on any topics, which the presenters then sourced from relevant websites and summarised on air in Sinhala. This helped to overcome the twin problems of Internet access and English proficiency (UNESCO, 1998). The station also provided Internet access free of charge at two public libraries in its signal coverage area and operated a cyber café at the station itself.

    “While the project certainly appealed to communications researchers and journalists in search of a “good story”, it is highly debatable whether it helped to raise the living standards of the communities. The service only rarely provided information with any economic benefit. Because it was sustained entirely by external funds, the project quickly died when that funding ran out in 2001. The two websites launched under this project,
    http://www.kotmale.net and http://www.kirana.lk, are no longer active.

    “The village PDA scheme was another major failure. Comparable in some ways to the Simputer in India, this was to be a portable device providing real-time access to email, contacts, calendar and messaging functions at a fraction of the cost of a PC, using only one-twentieth of the bandwidth that a PC needs for Internet connection. In the initial phase, village PDAs were planned to be used in a test run in a selected village in the North-Western Province. This never happened, and the much-hyped device never reached the marketplace. The company itself went bankrupt in 2003.

    “The Govi Gnana system (farmers’ knowledge) was launched in 2003 as a pilot project under e-Sri Lanka. It aimed to solve the interrelated issues of fluctuating agricultural produce prices and farmers’ poverty – the latter resulting from inadequate marketing, extension services and finance. The system was designed to provide an accessible, accurate, interactive and efficient ICT solution that improved the flow of price information between the markets and the farmers. The first phase was launched at Dambulla and Meegoda, two of the country’s major vegetable wholesale markets. The plan was to connect in a network an interactive platform to a number of trader terminals at the Dambulla Dedicated Economic Zone and a series of farmer terminals located within the zone and at Meegoda. This “electronic scoreboard” would allow the farmers to keep tabs on the best prices at any given time.

    “The reality of implementation has been quite different. Even by May 2004, after three months of operation, the project was not delivering the anticipated results. When Wijeya Pariganaka ICT magazine investigated the matter that month, many problems came to light. It found that very few traders had shown an interest in becoming a part of this system. Thus, the best prices obtained from them were meaningless. Most traders still used their traditional communication channels to find out the best market prices. The infrastructure was inadequate to support this sophisticated solution. During the seven hours the journalist spent in Dambulla, a provincial town in the northwest, four power blackouts happened – each time the central server had to be rebooted, resetting the previous price information. Already fed up with the system, some farmers and traders said it would have been far better if some public toilets were built instead, and at a fraction of the amount of US$90,000 spent on this so far failed system (Karunaratne, 2004). The implementers have claimed that it is too early to measure the success of this project.

    “Although it is premature to predict its fate, it is possible that another e-Sri Lanka project might be heading to a similar fate. Under the Vishva Gnana Kendra (Universal Knowledge Centres) project, 100 Internet kiosks cum communication centres are to be set up in rural areas. By May 2004, only six centres were in operation, with promises of another 50 to be operational ‘soon’.

  86. Hi,

    Codepoints Vs What You See
    ==========================

    Donald wrote: “We all steped into electronic era sometime in late 80’s.
    The people who got involved had no knowledge in Printing Industry or
    Typology or Typography.”

    The real problem is that Donald, from the printing industry, is trying to step into the electronic era but he doesn’t comprehend the intelligent font renderers used today.

    I’ll try and explain the concept that I feel Donald is having difficulty with. If my explanation is unclear, feel free to ask me questions.

    Definitions
    ———–

    Codepoint = very simply, a unique integer/number for each Sinhala consonant and vowel sound

    Glyph = very simply, consider it as an image (A complete explanation is available at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph. However, such a detailed understanding is not required for this example)

    Font = a file containing a list of glyphs mapping uniquely to a single codepoint or to a sequence of two, three or four codepoints.

    (0d9a) = the Unicode Sinhala codepoint for the consonant ‘kayanna’

    (0db8) = the Unicode Sinhala codepoint for the consonant ‘mayanna’

    (0dca) = the Unicode Sinhala codepoint for the ‘al-lakuna’ (hal kireema)

    Examples
    ——–

    a) When a Unicode Sinhala system sees codepoints for (kayanna)(al-lakuna):

    (0d9a)(0dca)

    it realises that the two codepoints should *NOT* be treated separately but as a single unit. The system then asks the font whether it has a glyph that maps to the two combined codepoints (0d9a)(0dca). A Unicode Sinhala font will then return a glyph containing the letter al-kayanna and that is what the user sees. The user will see the al-lakuna on the kayanna shaped like a ‘flag’.

    b) When a Unicode Sinhala system sees codepoints for (mayanna)(al-lakuna):

    (0db8)(0dca)

    again it realises that the two codepoints should be treated as a single unit and asks the font whether it has a glyph that maps to the two combined codepoints (0db8)(0dca), then the Unicode Sinhala font returns a glyph containing the letter al-mayanna. The user will see the al-lakuna on the mayanna shaped more like a ‘hat’, not a ‘flag’.

    Explanation
    ———–

    The Unicode Sinhala system is intelligent enough to understand that the al-lakuna should be combined with the preceding consonant, in our example (a) it was kayanna and in example (b) it was mayanna, to form a single unit. Therefore, we only use 3 unique codepoints to write the four letters:

    ‘kayanna’ = (0d9a)
    ‘mayanna’ = (0db8)
    ‘al-kayanna’ = (0d9a)(0dca)
    ‘al-mayanna’ = (0db8)(0dca)

    My understanding of Donald’s scheme is that it is very primitive and based on the printing industry. Thus to write the aforementioned four letters he wants to use 4 unique codepoints. Something along the lines of:

    ‘kayanna’ = (A)
    ‘mayanna’ = (B)
    ‘al-kayanna’ = (C)
    ‘al-mayanna’ = (D)

    where A,B,C,D are unique integers/numbers. So you can imagine what happens when you include the rest of the consonants and vowel modifiers (eg. ispilla) into his scheme.

    This is the reason why Donald’s scheme requires a codepage with approximately 1660 codepoints (That’s what he stated in 2004). Whereas, Unicode Sinhala requires less than 128 codepoints. Unicode Sinhala is simply more sophisticated. Donald’s scheme is derived from the printing industry not the computing industry.

    Free and Open Standard Vs Proprietary Standard
    ==============================================

    Another notable difference between Unicode Sinhala and Donald’s scheme is that Unicode Sinhala is a free and open standard where the Sri Lankan software industry and operating system developers can develop Sinhala applications, fonts, operating systems with Unicode Sinhala support, etc without paying royalties to Donald.

    Anyone can go to the Unicode website and download the Unicode Sinhala codepage (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0D80.pdf) containing all the codepoints for free. Which website can we go to and download, for free, Donald’s codepage which he claims contains all the codepoints required?

    Unicode Sinhala being free and open will help Sri Lanka develop compared to Donald’s proprietary scheme.

    Quoting Without References
    ==========================

    Donald wrote:
    ————————————————————————-
    Quote from UCS
    “Both the UCS and Unicode standards are first of all large tables that assign to every character an integer number”
    unquote
    ————————————————————————-

    Donald wrote:
    ————————————————————————-
    Quote from UCS
    ‘….but precomposed characters should be preferred over combining character sequences where available….”
    unquote
    ————————————————————————-

    Donald can you please give me the URL where you obtained these quotes? It’s usual practice to provide the URL when you are quoting information from the web. I’m not entirely convinced of the legitimacy of your two quotes.

    Unicode Sinhala is Cross Platform Compatible
    ============================================

    Donald wrote: “The gruop always talk about Linux solutions where the plain text is not compatible woth other operating systems”

    This is not true. The Sinhala-Unicode Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/Sinhala-Unicode) consists of GNU/Linux and MS Windows users communicating effectively in plain text using the Unicode Sinhala standard. Unicode Sinhala is a cross platform solution.

    Donald’s Codepage
    =================

    In 2006 Donald wrote: “If you need all combine letters which would be around 490,000 still I can make it at 512,000 locations.”

    In 2004 Donald claimed: “I do have all the sinhala characters technically little over 1660 with the badhi akuru” (http://www.linux.lk/~anuradha/sinhala/akuru.org/0025.html)

    So, one and a half years later Donald is contradicting himself. If we were able to download Donald’s codepage, for free, we could actually verify his claims. We all can download the Unicode Sinhala codepage but what about Donald’s codepage?

    Misconceptions
    ==============

    Dharma Gamage wrote: “So it is clear that after spending so much of money ICTA has made only another set of fonts, but not a standard.”

    You are absolutely and utterly *INCORRECT*.

    Unicode Sinhala is most definitely a standard, it is also free, open and international. Please, first go and read ‘post number 67’ by me, then if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

    Jan kennespick wrote: “Unless the Cyber café is in Sri Lanka, you won’t be able to read Sinhala fonts.”

    This is inaccurate. Please, first go and read ‘post number 67’ by me, then if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

    Misc
    ====

    Sandhya Herath wrote: “The hypocrites in ICTA talk so much about openness and open content (They even organise seminars on OPEN CONTENT! My foot!) but they do not provide us an online platform to talk.”

    I went to the ICTA website to have a look and noticed they have a discussion forum. I haven’t tried it, but you can certainly go and have a look.

    Go to the ICTA front page:
    http://icta.lk/DefaultEnglish.asp

    Look at the link “ICTA DISCUSSION FORUM – Click here” and click it:
    http://icta.lk/Insidepages/ICT/Main/default.asp

    Observing Donald
    ================

    After observing Donald’s methods, one distinct characteristic I have noticed is that he spends the majority of the time describing historical events or background information which is not directly related to the issue being discussed. I suspect, this is done in an attempt to convince the reader that he actually understands the topic at hand.

    Regards,
    Harshula

  87. Harshula,

    I think in your vocabulary you have a very different meaning for the term ‘standard’.

    According to Wikipedia, standards are produced by many organizations, some for internal usage only, others for use by a groups of people, groups of companies, or a subsection of an industry. A problem arises when different groups come together, each with a large user base doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible.

    If Sinhala Unicode is a standard we should see everyone using it, and we should be able to use Sinhala in computers WITHOUT SOMEONE DICTATING US TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL FONTS every time.

    Who uses Sinhala Unicode today? Only a handful of people. So how come a standard which is being used only by such a small number become a standard? How come that small group dictate their fonts set is better than the font sets developed by others?

    I have only one question.

    If it is a standard why not the latest version of Windows do not support Sinhala? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DICTATE PEOPLE TO *DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL* Sinhala fonts?

    When this DOWNLOADING and INSTALLING business is over I will accept Unicode is a standard. Till then it is another set of fonts, nothing else.

    To me Unicode Sinhala is completely *USELESS*, because all I see in my screen is boxes.

    See this is what I get from http://www.gov.lk.

    රාජ්‍ය සංවිධාන වලින් සපයන ලද නිෂ්පාදන හා සේවා පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු සහ වෙනත් ලාංකීය පුරවැසියන්ට වැදගත් වන තොරතුරු.

    Can you read this for me?

    On the other hand, Lankaenews guys have offered a better solution.

  88. I am bit confused with all these discussions i want to know presently with the present Unicode which is supposed to be in computers can we presently do

    1) Email with out any down loading the characters
    2) Can we use it for SMS-
    3) Can we do OCR
    4) Can we do Voice recognition
    5) Can we some day use it on mobile phones
    6) Can we use it on our Medical equipments
    7) Can we even have a forum just like this with sri lankans
    right round the world in sinhala

  89. Friends,

    What you see below is the history of the Pensions Department, written in Unicode Sinhala, as appear in its web site: http://www.pensions.gov.lk/sinhala/index.php

    සිවිල් විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් ක්‍රමය වර්ෂ 1901 සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක විය
    • 1947 අංක 2 දරණ ආඥා පන‌තේ 2 වගන්ති‌‌යෙන් විශ්‍රාම වැටුප්
    ව්‍යවස්ථා සංග්‍රහය වර්ෂ 1901 පටන් ලංකා‌වේ පැනවූ නීති‌යේ
    කොටසක් වේ
    • මුල් කාල‌යේ කටයුතු මහා භාණ්ඩාගාර‌යේ අති‌රේක ආයතන
    පාලක අතින් සිදු කෙරිනි
    • 1970දි “ඒ” ‌ශ්‍රේණි‌යේ දෙපාර්ත‌මේන්තුවක් ලෙස විශ්‍රාම වැටුප්
    දෙපාර්ත‌‌මේන්තුව ආර්ම්භය සිදු විය
    • රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන හා ස්වදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශයට අයත්
    දෙපාර්ත‌මේන්තුවකි
    • වසරකට රුපියල් මිලියන 45000 ක් පමණ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් ගෙවීමට
    වැය වේ

    Sometimes you will not be able to read this because only the wise people like Prof. V.K. Samaranayake, Prof. J. B. Dissanayake, Dr. Gihan Dias, Mr. Harsha Purasinghe and Mr./Ms. Harshula Jayasooriya can read it.

    If you need any help reading it please, first go and read ‘post number 67′ by Mr./Ms. Harshula Jayasooriya.

    If you have any questions, feel free to ask Mr./Ms. Harshula Jayasooriya.

    I am not surprised why Donald cannot read it.

    He is so stupid. :-)

  90. I am just experimenting whether I can make posts in languages other than English.

    This may be Arabic.

    وترتبط اللغة بالتفكير ارتباطا وثيقا. فأفكار الإنسان تصاغ دوما في قالب لغوي، حتى في حال تفكيره الباطني. فقط في اللغة تحصل الفكرة على وجودها الواقعي. واللغة ترمز إلى الأشياء المنعكسة
    فيها

    Is this Chinese?

    语言是所有正常的人类都具有的讲话的能力。不同地区之间人类所使用的语言千差万别,但是任何人都必须通过学习才能获得语言能力。对于这个非常复杂、重要

    What is this? Korean?

    언어는 자연어와 인공어로 나눌 수 있는데, 자연어는 인류의 각 민족이 오래전부터 생활 속에서 사용해 왔던 언어이고, 컴퓨터나 수학등 다른 학문의 분야에서 상호

    This is supposed to be Gujarati.

    વ્યાપક અર્થમાં નિશાનીઓ અને નિયમો દ્વારા બનતું એક માળખાને ભાષા કહે છે. ભાષાઓનો ઉપયોગ વિચારોની આપ-લે માટે થાય છે પરંતુ ભાષાઓનો ઉપયોગ ત્યાં સુધી મર્યાદિત નથી.

    Japanese?

    言語(げんご)とは、コミュニケーションのための記号の体系。狭義には人間の音声による言葉を指すが、広義には身振りなど音声以外の要素も含む。また、動物間のコミュニケーションや、コンピュータに指示するための記号の体系(プログラミング言語)を指す場合もある。

    If the characters appear correctly, theoritically there is no reason why we cannot do that with Sinhala.

  91. Harshula,

    My experiment is successful. Now I know I can post here in languages like Arabic, Chinese, Koran, Gujarati etc. That is because they have established standards.

    Now I have two questions for you. (Or anyone who is willing to take)

    1. If I download your ICTA Sinhala fonts set from http://www.fonts.lk and install in my computer, will I be able to make posts like this? Yes or No?

    2. Will others be able to read it without having your ICTA Sinhala fonts set installed in their computers? Yes or No?

  92. Dear Harshula

    I have quoted the URL

    see the tread; This URL was given by Wasantha

    Quote from “”http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb”” UCS

    ICT is just a branch of Printing and publishing Industry.
    Prior to 1980 how did the people exchange the views

    Radio , “kala pattara” , News Paper, Cinema , Magazines & books, Telephone , Telegramme (1978 we got the TV)
    Later FAX
    Today a Computer.

    The Characters comes form the Printing and publishing Industry.
    All typology and typography rules has to be added.

    UNICODE SINHALA have a LIMITED number of CODE points.

    Quote from Harsula “a) When a Unicode Sinhala system sees codepoints for (kayanna)(al-lakuna):

    (0d9a)(0dca)”

    This is type writer technology. Not Computer based thinking.

    Do not worry about the 1660 or 490,000 code points. It is my duty to make them allocated into Wijesekarera Keyboard and “QWERTY” key board. I have that technology.

    My thinking of using full characters in Computers is new to indic languages.

    With my technology

    OCR,Voice to text, text to voice, Sinhala GPS , Medical warning systems, Court Proceedings online in Sinhala, Land registration, Digital Music composing, Digital Book publishing, Public Bus Administration systems, Govt certificates eg Birth ,Death, Marriage online, Quality Published Litereature, Employment for Handicapped, Water and Harvest Management, Accurate Election results, Translations, are possible.

    We can achive all this and more!!!!

    All these areas will be opend therefore with my technology New Industry will born with more job opportunities for the Sinhala educated group over 500,000.

    I address the rights of these people. With SLSI 1134 you have not gone byond a electric typewriter.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  93. Dear Dhamma

    Other than Gujarati I can read all the other languages. Arabic ,Chinese, Korean and Japanses.

    Arabic ,Chinese, Korean and Japanses. are possible because the standard has been made unlike the Sinhala.

    With my technology you will be able to use SInhala the same way you used Arabic ,Chinese, Korean and Japanses. Not with SLSI 1134

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  94. I thought of addressing few of above and please refer below,

    Dharma Gamage’s quotes,

    What you did in this post is very interesting and as you said clearly YES ofcourse I can read the text from the pension department without any issue as well as all the other languages which you have pasted.

    As you all know Unicode is a Standard and how you use it technically in different places such as PC’s to Moble phones to electronic devices are technical implementation of this standard.

    So the reason you cant see Sinhala is because the fact that you dont have the FONTS of this particular standard and am sure this will drive your temper and argue why it isnt in place. This was due to the fact the Unicode standard was finalized and properly informed/updated to respective giants like Microsoft, RedHat and other Linux groups, Oracle etc, RECENTLY. So as you know these companies now have to enable this standard in there operating systems like Win, Apple OS X, Linux etc. Microsoft has as per what I know has agreed to have complete Sinhala support in there up coming Windows version (Hopefully in VISTA and best we get to know from MS itself), and there regional VP even acknowledge the delays in their side. So untill that MS has released a interim solution to enable the standard in most of the unicode enabled Microsoft Application mainly on Windows XP. But once MS enabled the standard in there future releases of OS/Office etc, you not only can see and write but you will even be able to see the menu items to buttons to everything in Sinhala, like a true localized version.

    So in short why it’s not available is MS has many things to do other than Sinhala enabling as they themselves said that they have to localize over 60 or 70 scripts worldwide supporting there range of app’s and sinhala is just 1 of them, and even quite recetnly only they have released a south african native script in their OS. So what’s there to use the Unicode Standard for now is to download the pack and enable it so you can preview all the unicode website, send emails, write documents and do many things. There are few sites in Sri Lanka who use MS Font embedding technology where you dont need to download any font to view this pages. This is a technical accomplishment and nothing to do with unicode standard. But the whole issue discucssed and debated is about Unicode which is the standard.

    Asaranaya Quotes,

    All above will start to appear slowly in future when comapnies enable Unicode standard in there respective applications. All what you have specified like OCR, Mobile, Medical Equipments are technical implementations which has to happen on Unicode. Already unicode enabled mobile browsers, unicode enabled mobile to email, are in the market. I am sure when people technically adopt the Unicode Standard in other applications such as OCR, Voice your dream will become a reality. In a nutshell all I can say is things are progressing.

    I think best to address all the critics would be to have a workshop/forum where all people who have developed and adopted unicode standard on various applications and devices can demonstrate them to people who are still curious about this standard and what it can do etc.

    TO ALL:

    Finally for all readers who will get mis-lead with donalds postings, I would like to notify, even if we adopt or agree to his standard and accept that as the standard for Sinhala. All what I mentioned above like Microsoft, Orcale, RedHat to local companies like us to everyone has to do technical enabling of his so called standard. So Microsoft has to adopt his method to support in Windows to Orcale has to ensure it’s compliant with it’s databases to what not.

    So, finally if all industry giants, to local organizations to everyone is agreed and accepted and adopted the Unicode standard there is no point arguning about this issue further.

    However, I agree the fact that the time taken to push this standard and getting established even with the local companies was not satisfactory at all. As we know we started adopting and implementing Unicode standard only from 2004. And we did commercial application only after it was released on the February 8th 2005 by SLSI. So if this standard was finalized earlier we will not be having this argument now. And this thread would have been in complete Sinhala as well. People like donald would not have shouted about this as MS Windows would have been having Sinhala by now. And all mentioned applications would have been up and running by now as well.

    STANDARDIZATION DELAYS! here it goes as per my view, my observation, my personal experience.

    I think people who headed Unicode and tried to establish this standard from good old days when we were in school can come and answer everyone why it wasnt done at that time? Was it due to technical issue or what the real issue behind it? So people as I know who tried to do this initially without much INDUSTRY participation includes Prof. Samaranayake, University of Colombo related people whom I cant pubslish names as I cant recall all the names, and perhaps then CINTEC. Unfortunately, at that time this particular team didnt have any interest to take public and industry opinion. I will not use the word “BUDALE” but they tried to establish the sinhala unicode standard like their private property perhaps for good reasons which are know to them. It was at a later stage when it was handled by Dr.Gihan Dias where industry players got involved including us, and contributed, challenged and evaluated the technical feasibility and finally agreed and adopted to implement the standard technically. Prof. Samarayake and the team must have had perhaps valid reasons to do so, perhaps someone from his team can update the people in this thread about this to clear everyone’s concerns.

    I agree on most of people that we are in this pathetic situation because some of the things that would have done in the past was not done and finalized and published so technical implementations are ready and available by now so we will not waste all our time, energy replying each other trying to prove what and which is best. Also, donald would have been spending his professional time doing something else if we were using sinhala in computers by now. So the best people to anwer this point of mine is people from the original Unicode Standardization comitee and Prof. Samaranayake who might have had reasons behind these delays.

  95. Dear Harsha

    This para is misleading
    Quote”Finally for all readers who will get mis-lead with donalds postings, I would like to notify, even if we adopt or agree to his standard and accept that as the standard for Sinhala.: unquote

    What I do is compatible with Microsoft , Linux and Mac OS.

    They do not have to match my system what I produce will match them.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  96. Dear Donald,

    If you can prove what you say “They do not have to match my system what I produce will match them”, please prove it technically and demonstrate it technicall in MS, Linux to mobiles to what not as you say it’s so easy to implement.

    Also interesting to see this in your Sinhala GPS, Harvest Management etc. Please prove as I am sure there are people who agree with you maybe willing to invest / fund for your technical development activities.

    But, unfortunate thing is thereafter you need to go another extra mile to convince Unicode teams from Microsoft Coporation, Oracle to Red Hat to companies like us to universities to all people who have accepted and developed and developing solutions on Unicode to adopt your standard. Oh! perhaps I may be out of mind as you claim that your productions will match all ours automatically. Very very interesting and I think I should think of an early retirement from this industry if such is possibe!

    I hate to say this but it’s absolutely no point arguing or talking about people who cant really see the actual realty and what is really meant by a STANDARD and what is meant by techically accomplishing the same.

    Againt, it’s pretty unfortunate many get mislead due to Donalds theory as our pioneering unicode team failed to establish standard and deliver results to the industry long time ago, where we will not be having this discussion. I personally feel that they should be responsible for that Sinhala enabled Windows to Linux to other applications were not present for such long time. However, no point arguing about them on what they have failed to do but rather it make sense for all of us to agree on the proved Sinhala Unicode standard and make sure at least in future sinhala is enabled in computers to all other devices which can interoprate on the agreed standard.

    I am sure pretty soon the ICT industry with all players who developed UNICODE complaint solutions will showcase their products so all Myths about Unicode will be taken out, and as I said the issue is NOT WITH THE STANDARD the issue was that the STANDARDIZATION took a long time and was officially commenced technical implementations only recenly so now only we are getting to see applications coming out to the market. But I am sure in future releases of MS, Linux to many other will adopt UNICODE standard.

    Hope all people other than Donald are convinced and am sure if ICTA , Lirnasia or someone will arrange a forum and a workshop to demonstrate products from all industry players. I am sure all people will sent invitations specially to DONALD to come and witness and see the reality and at least restrain from talking about this issue further.

    As per Donald – am sure you will pick another quote from my para and will start another argument which is baseless and pointless talking about and wasting my time. I kindly request you to spend your time once such event is organized so you can question/challenge all likes from Microsoft, Linux teams, Local Software Developers, University Students to others who have adopted Unicode standard. Hope you will clear your myths thereafter.

  97. Harshula’s explanations is perfectly rational. He answered all the questions raised here impartially.

    Sinhala Unicode is an attempt to comply with the Unicode Inc.’s assignment of code points (numbers) for Sinhala alphabetic letters. That in turn would allow Microsoft to include character rendering support in their Uniscribe rendering engine that they embedded in their operating system. Linux licenses it from them.

    Gamage, the bottom line is you need to wait for next version of Windows. You can read some of the scripts and not others is because you have not installed support for CJK (Chinese-Japanese-Korean) or interim support for Sinhala. Arabic and Hebrew were added during the Windows 3.1 days. So, you see them because your system has those fonts. Sinhala will also have a generic font by Microsoft that will be installed when you select the country or install Asian language support. Wait for next Windows, buddy. In the meantime, make a lot of money.

    Microsoft at International Unicode Conference Dublin, Ireland, May 2002:
    Very good reading, it is technical but you’ll get a good idea of the direction they are going:
    http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/6/8/56803da0-e4a0-4796-a62c-ca920b73bb17/21-Unicode_WinXP.pdf

    Microsoft on help they’d provide word processor developers:
    OpenType Layout Services Library:
    http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/otls/default.htm

    Unicode Technical Intro:
    http://www.unicode.org/standard/principles.html
    Unicode Compliance according to Unicode. (This is an American Company. If they say something unambiguously, they stand behind it because market credibility is paramount — no government behind any of this. If you want, you can email any official and expect replies to your questions. This is different from the Socialist hierarchy we are used to).

    1. characters are from the common repertoire
    meaning: The code points used must be from defined Unicode points.
    2. characters are encoded according to one of the encoding forms;
    Meaning: 8 (DOS), 16(Windows 9x) or 32-bits per code unit (All Modern OSs).
    3. characters are interpreted with Unicode semantics;
    Meaning: correct character encoding and decoding.
    4. unassigned codes are not used; and,
    5. unknown characters are not corrupted.
    The last two are self-explanatory.

    If you read the above document carefully, you will realize that the present Sinhala Unicode input order is NOT Unicode compliant. (This may be because the group is still experimenting. Plus, they have to instruct Microsoft on how to add Sinhala to the Uniscribe character rendering engine as the lady stated at Dublin conference.)
    Unicode says,
    “The Unicode Standard specifies the order of characters in a combining character sequence. The base character comes first, followed by one or more non-spacing marks.” Key phrase: ‘The base character comes first’. A base character is a character out of the alphabet, not a sign like the kombuva. Typing kombuva ahead of the base breaks the rule. You see the impact of this if you try to backspace to change a koyanna into a keyanna. You have to delete the entire group and retype. Unicode has tested this type of problem and that is why they say to follow the text processing semantics they have laid down. This means Wijesekera keyboard has to be modified or simply apply the QWERTY keyboard:
    k, o => hal kayanna, oyanna => kombuva, kayanna, elapilla.
    The last step is done according to Uniscribe instructions to the OpenType font.

    Unicode instructions should follow Sinhala orthography. Help of Language experts may be needed. Also, it means open discussion without driving away those who offer counter opinions.

  98. I am someone who has recently seen this online debate. But I see now it is now going into very exciting areas.

    I too have some questions for ICTA. I hope either ICTA Chairman or one of his representatives will answer these questions.

    1. Did some one called Mr. Priyantha Kariyapperuma (now the Chairman of National Lotteries Board and Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka) worked as an ADVISOR to the ICTA or ICTA Chairman in the period of April 2004 to November 2005?

    2. If so, what exactly was the input of this individual to the ICTA’s functions? What were the ADVICES he gave to ICTA? What was his value addition to the e-Sri Lanka Program?

    3. If so, what were Mr. Priantha Kariyapperuma’s qualifications and experience in the ICT area for him to advise to an organization headed by an Emeritus Professor in Computer Science?

    4. If so, did Mr. Priyantha Kariyapperuma joined as an ADVISOR to ICTA through the normal procedure? Did he attend to an interview? Did ICTA Chairman ever interview him?

    5. Did Mr. Priyantha Kariyapperuma ever advised to ICTA Chairman on deals outside his Terms Of Reference? Has he ever advised the Chairman of ICTA about buying equipment from a certain Korean company?

    Mr. Chairman of ICTA, the floor is yours. I am eagerly waiting for your reply.

  99. Why bother at all about ICTA? Let’s ask the fundamental question:

    Why do we need Sinhala on computers.
    To record official documents, past and present literature, electronic communication.

    Sinhala Unicode does not help in electronic communication becasue it is not universally present on computers like English. if you write an email using Unicoe Sinhala it will show as a bunch of questions marks on computers that do not have Sinhala and Asian language support installed. Windows ME and earlier would always show rubbish.

    Let’s debate this question and come up with a solution.

    Thanks

  100. Harsha Purasinghe’s and Ahangama’s posts here reveal some important information on how things happen in this country.

    According to Harsha, the reason that one cannot see Sinhala in PC is because the fact that he/she does not have the FONTS of this particular standard. Then he says this was due to the fact the Unicode standard was finalized and properly informed/updated to respective giants like Microsoft, RedHat and other Linux groups, Oracle etc, RECENTLY. (Ahangama agrees.)

    Harsha emphasizes the word RECENTLY.

    Let me ask how RECENTLY.

    According to the information on the history of the Sinhalization of computers available at http://www.fonts.lk/history.html Sinhala Unicode was approved in 1998.

    This is 2006. Am I correct? Still we do not have any operating system supporting Sinhala. So what the authorities have been doing for all these days?

    I am forced to ask this question. For eight long years were the people responsible for introducing the Sinhala Standard for major Operating systems washing rice for their grandmothers? (avurudu atak tisse aachchita haal geruwada?)

    How long will these people continue to wash rice for their grandmothers?

  101. Dear Harsha

    Quote
    please prove it technically and demonstrate it technicall in MS, Linux….
    unquote

    Whan you all accept that SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete and whan I am given the mandate and the proper credential to perform I can give the product.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  102. Dear Fresh look

    Quote”Why bother at all about ICTA?”unquote

    World Bank gave ICTA funds to develop the IT in Sri Lanka.
    A fraction of this fund is required to develop the Sinhala and Tamil.

    Quote”Why do we need Sinhala on computers.:unquote

    The Constitution of Sri Lanka requires the Government to use Sinhala Language and Tamil Language in Sri Lanka.This is a mandatory requirement.

    Quote”if you write an email using Unicoe Sinhala it will show as a bunch of questions marks on computers” unquote

    This is because the Sinhala unicode is incorrect and incomplete standard.

    I am the only person who pointed this problem visit http://www.akuru.org
    I am the only person who has given an alternate Solution

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  103. Mr. Gamage,

    I must say that reading what you write is so refreshing.

    An important point, however:
    Anglicizing: avurudu atak tisse aachchita haal geruwada?
    Romanized: avuruðu atak þisse aaccita haal gæruvaða?

    Also,
    Anglicized: Udagama
    Romanized: uðaagama hoo udagama
    Anglicized: Sri Lanka
    Romanized: ‘sri’ kiyala harupayak síhalavala hoo ígriisivala næhæ. meeka rajaa maraµa gaman uge gæþþaþ maraµa vædak (මොකක්ද ඒ හරුපෙ? Síhala, yakoo, síhala)
    All above is about MY agenda. (Some more later).

    Now to your questions:
    If you read the Dublin paper by Microsoft, you would have seen that Divehi, (ðiveehi) language is already there in Windows XP. For the information of those who do not know what is Divehi, it is the language of the Maldivians — a dialect of Sinhala! oops, síhala.

    You said ‘approved’ in 1998. Approved by whom? Approval for what? Big Unicode approved so that Big Microsoft can sell us next version Windows? Did someone say computers come as Aid? That’s how we got aid all our miserable life as a free nation. (What? Universal franchise is not equal to freedom). The donor country pledges. Then one of their companies picks up the money and sometimes we get some too (into someone’s pocket, that is). Russians dumped. Americans dumped, British dumped. We are the dumping ground!

    So, if you are so itching to use Sinhala, why don’t you just go to your Control panel and do the following:
    (Caution: Not for the weak hearted)
    Regional and Language Options => Languages tab => Details button
    => Keyboard layout/IME dropdown list => Select the item, United Sates – International
    Hit the Apply button
    Now you will see two keyboard layouts: US and US-International
    Next, change your Default input language to
    English (United States) – United States-International
    Some more…
    Hit the language Bar button and check-mark all 4 items you see there.
    Keep hitting OK till you get out.
    Finished!!

    Now you’ll see a bar somewhere on your desktop (Is it yours or your boss’s? Just watch out then because big wigs in Lanka do not speak Sinhala themselves. They want the down trodden yakkos to use Sinhala. In Texas, they call such people coconuts — checkout the inside and outside colors of those nuts).

    Since at this point you’ll be thoroughly confused and scared, go and open the following web page:
    http://www.LANandWAN.com/Sinhala/hoodiya.htm
    First, read Frequently Asked Questions. read the harangue too if you feel like. If you look at the bottom of the page, you’ll see my email address. Send your comments directly.

    Take a deep breadth. Just use romanized Sinhala until you can afford to buy the next version Windows (or till your boss gets it. Are you that lucky? I am not). I installed the trial Sinhala stuff and nearly ruined my work computer. Installing any trial stuff on a computer used for serious work is asking for trouble. As an IT consultant here in the US I know people get fired for doing that.

    May I reiterate a point:
    Unicode සිංහල යුනිකෝඩ් නීති වලට පටහැනියි.
    English: Sinhala Unicode is not Unicode compliant! What? Unicode is not Unicode?

    Gamage, we seem to be in a quagmire.

  104. I disagree. Unicode is not a hazard to Lanka. Bacause it quarantines us away from the hazards of the Internet and English and advancement in intercommunity communications. Only the elite (of Colombo) hazard the danger of the outside world’s advancements.

  105. JC is correct
    Technically speaking SInhala need not be in unicode consortium

    “LATIN SCRIPT” is used in many other languages like Suwahili , Bhasha Malaysia where a uniformity is required.

    But need a proper National Standard to represent all sinhala characters as code points
    Once a proper National Standard is made Unicdoe accept the National Std.

    “”see””” http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb
    quote”Has UCS been adopted as a national standard?
    Yes, a number of countries have published national adoptions of ISO 10646, sometimes after adding additional annexes with cross-references to older national standards, implementation guidelines, and specifications of various national implementation subsets: unquote

    Unlike the “LATIN SCRIPT” SInhala Script is used only to write SInhala and Pali

    Once you allocates code points to all Sinhala characters (ISBN 955-98975-0-0 ) the problem will get solved automatically universally.

    Why ISBN 955-98975-0-0 because there is no other list or book published in Sri Lanka on this subject.
    This is the power of 1/18,874,999. (hope you all have read Cumaratunge Munidasa’s Heensaraya)

    Once Sinhala is done in my way Sri Lanka could be another hub for the development of Indic Languages. So our Helaya will be proud of his Sinhala Heritage.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  106. Whoever this Donald Gaminitilaka, somebody should warn his boss. He is spending too much time here, I do not think he has any time left to do any productive work at his office.

  107. Dear Muchalinda

    I am the King. No one above me in my palace
    Unlike you I do many productive work for the society.

    Visit
    http://www.akuru.org
    http://www.rotarycolombocentral.org

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  108. Donald,

    [I am the King. No one above me in my palace]

    I did not know they give you separate rooms in mental asylums. I thought they put everybody together in a common ward. So you have got your own room there. Might be because your condition is too serious.

    See you have a friend in the other thread called Revantha.

  109. Muchalinda,

    Please contribute in an effective manner to the forum(s) with out acting like a Stray DOG running helter skelter and trying to deviate the discussions to achive your personnal gains..

    thx

  110. quote”
    Muchalinda on May 18th, 2006 at 4:30 pm

    See you have a friend in the other thread called Revantha.

    revantha on May 18th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    unquote

    How come muchalinda knows the revanthas posting of 4.55pm at 4.30pm

    Either Muchalinda needs a separate rooms in mental asylum or both the same or he is the aged Emirates Airlines… sorry, Emeritus Professor

    Please get back to the topic

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  111. Yes, back to the topic!

    Why we cannot gain the maximum benefits of ICT in Sri Lanka? What (and who) prevents us from achieving our goals, like they have done in India and other countries?

    I am going back to the points raised by the original post in the top of the list. I am sure if we can somehow stop the personal politics in ICT we can reach great heights without any difficulty.

    Somebody talked about Grandfather Sam axing GD. I am not hundred percent sure about that. (If I am wrong, GD please correct me.)

    But GD is not the only person Grandfather Sam axed or attempted to axe.

    What about AE? Didn’t Grandfather Sam nearly chase him out of Sin-tech when he realized AE no more work to Grandfather’s personal agenda? (Fortunately for AE, BW chased Grandfather before that happened.)

    What about AM? Why AM had to leave UoC and join UoM? How come a bright young academic like AM had no future prospects at UoC? Who closed the doors for him?

    What about DW? How many times Grandfather Sam harassed this talented young man? (First at UoC and then when he was at MoE)

    Don’t we see a trend here? All above are bright and dynamic young professionals who wanted to positively contribute to the development of ICTs in Sri Lanka. So naturally Grandfather Sam felt threatened and jealous.

    So he comes with his axe and we hear another casualty. (Like in a horror movie!)

    It looks like the latest additions to the list are GD and MH – possible RD too. Grandfather Sam is now very busy polishing his axe. He might use it at anytime and MH will be history. We all know Grandfather Sam is eyeing for something better for a long time. MH is the one who is now blocking his way.

    How long this will continue? Can we let Grandfather Sam to axe all our bright young IT professionals in this manner? Will there be any end to this?

  112. This is fascinating and the best Sri Lankan blog on ICT myths in Sri Lanka. Good stuff! Hats off for LiernASIA for creating the forum! But sad to see some are spoiling it by mud slinging.

    I have 2 questions on Sinhala Unicode to ask from ICTA.
    1. As Harsha Purasinghe and many others have pointed out what happened between 1998 (when Sinhala Unicode was accepted as the Sinhala character set for Sinhala computing in Sri Lanka) and 2004 (when Dr Gihan was appointed to take this forward and he in turn produced the Sinhala enabling kit in 2005) in relation to produce the Sinhala Unicode standards? Who was in charge during that time and they are responsible for this crime. Over to you Prof Samaranayake as you were the Chairman of CINTEC during that period and the current Chairman of ICTA.
    2. To Wasantha Deshapriya – (He is indeed the director in charge of eGovernment in Sri Lanka. I checked their website and he has worked as the Senior Assistant Secretary in IT in Ministry of Public Administration. When I called he admitted to posting 3 blogs to this site . Based on those facts I also agree with Rohan Samarajeewa, It is commendable for Wasantha’s attempt to stand in for others work and be accountable to what he does. Nobody else from ICTA has written to this blog although ICTA has its own Communication programme, may be they do not accept blogging as the most powerful current communication media). I think Wasantha is playing a more dangerous role (according to Donald, Sinhala Unicode standards are completely wrong) by implementing what others have produced. As he says he is going to give 3500 computers to the government with Sinhala Unicode this year. His eServices are to be enabled through Sinhala Unicode. He is to develop 200 govt websites (his web says so) using Sinhala Unicode. If he succeeds there will not be any Sinhala commercial software. He is going to drive the final nail in to Donald’s coffin. The question is; Why is the Sinhala Unicode the best tool available to implement eGovernment in Sinhala in Sri Lanka? Over to you Wasantha, “the responsible public servant’ according to Rohan Samarajeewa.

  113. Dear Suhada Sedara

    Quote
    He is going to drive the final nail in to Donald’s coffin.
    unquote

    It is not mine it will be the nail for our Sinhala Language – already placed below the ground level.
    Boys across the fence must be laughing.
    What they cannot achieve the Sinhalese themselves are achieving for them.

    This is the truth.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  114. Hi Suhada Sedara,

    I have seen you have invited Prof. V. K. Samaranayake to respond to this blog.

    In fact, I too have made this request to him long time ago. Since then there were so many people repeated that request. But Prof. Samaranayake never made even a single post.

    The only person from government who cared to comment was Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya. We all should respect him for this, whether we agree with him or not. This is what we expect from the public servants of today. Mr. Deshapriya, we are proud of government servants like you.

    Some old school public servants think they are our masters and they can take decisions for ourselves. However, in this new era, the people expect to be an active partners of that decision making process. The people whose mission is to reengineer the way govt. works and thinks should come down from their ivory towers and come forward to get involved in a meaningful dialog with people, they think they serve.

    If they do not talk to people who do they know what people wants?

    Prof. V. K. Samaranayake is a public servant whose salary is being paid by the people of this country. Therefore he has an obligation to listen to the people who pay for his bread and butter.

    It is a pity that Prof. Samaranayake has failed to understand this.

  115. Sumanasekera,

    Sri Lankans may be paying for Dino’s bread and butter, but Koreans pay for his Jam. :-)

  116. Friends,

    By the way, a very young and dynamic leader in ICT turns 71 years next Monday (22nd May).

    Donald, you should send him a birthday card.

  117. See this mail:
    quote
    >—–Original Message—–
    >From: Professor Samaranayake
    >Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 4:00 PM
    >To: V.K. Samaranayaka
    >Subject: Visit of Prof. Lawrence Lessig

    >Please give as much publicity as possible
    >Thanks
    >Prof. V. K. Samaranayake
    >Chairman, ICTA
    Unquote

    quote
    Public Lecture on “A Way Forward for Emerging Economies through Creativity in ICT” at Hotel Galadari on 22nd May from 1700- 1800
    Unquote

    This is his birthday present for all of us. Why not we all take some presnts for the lecture!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colomabo

  118. Dear All,

    It was not suprising that many ICT youngsters have openly and bluntly criticise appointment of outdated and outmoded intelecuals of yesteryears such as Samaranayake who is currently heading the formaly vibrant ICT Agency. The practice of utilizing the services of completes discard like Samaranayake goes back to JRJ era. He continued with general Attigala who could bearly walk around let alone fighting a war with LTTE. Similarly former Ranil Wickremasinghe regime to appointed many retired civil servents who could not understand the reform agendas Ranil had for these individual ministries.

    Of course, we should not object to using these retired fellows (of course if they still have substance) as advisors. But unfortunately when they are given positions as Heads of Institutions such fellows become puffets in the hands of political masters bowing down to any request of their masters, simply because they know that they can’t find a job in private sector even as computer operators. This also demonstrate the reason why such people are preffered by courppt or mediocer politicians.

    Most harmfull effect of the appointment of Samaranayake and like is that they simply develope inferiority complexes against youthful tallents from the day of their appointments they are suspicious of young professionals with creative abilities and elequent speech.

    I hope Mahinda Rajapaksa, the current President will be more careful in appointment of professionals to highly important positions such as that of ICTA. Alternatively it might be less harmful to close them down.

  119. Prof Samaranayake was a very respected person in this country. It is unfortunate that a person of his calibre is given a treatment like this in a blog site which has suddenly become pupular all over the world among expacts too.

    All I can say is like Arjuna Ranathunga, the cricketing legend, Prof Samaranayake didn’t know when to go. One should retire in style at his best like Sunil Gavaskar or Imran Khan did.

    Prof, you will be still respected at least now decide on your good name. Even Chandrika BK had to go ‘untimely’ but at least her son and daughter can make a comeback when the wounds are healed. If you continue like this, even your son who is studying in USA will not have a chance to serve the motherland as nobody will give him a chance as people know how genes work. They say even to Hell, it is better to go early.

    Ajith

  120. Dear When To,

    Arjuna braught World Cup to the island at a time nobody expected. He groomed many youngsters and he is a legend even today. What did your professor bring to this country? He has blocked the whole future of Sri Lanka, hasn’t he? While India became a superpower in IT, Sri Lanka hasn’t been able to make any name in IT thanks to Prof. When Milinda M formed ICTA sometime back, he knew well what harm this ailing prof can do and chased him away from the field totally and he became a total discard. But professori was able to use Sinhalese-Buddhist sentimentals of the then PM Mahinda R to jump back into the big seat for his greed. Everyone knows what happened thereafter to ICTA as well. Now profssori is sneaking the president’s office to make his seat bigger in ICTA. Everyone knows the story expect you.

    My request is do not compare the legendary Arjuna with ancient Proffessori. Arjuna must have done his own mistake but he is a hero who can be lined up with Imran K and Sunil G.

  121. I think we have to get back to the topic of “ICT myths”

    Flaws on SLSI 1134,

    I pointed these falws at the SLSI before SLSI1134 was passed professor turned them down.
    There were over 20 individuals at this meeting to supporrt the Professor.

    SLSI 1134 is not the complete Sinhala Alpabet. Most of he characters are mssing.

    They are thinking of a typewriter. They know only a typewriter.

    The rest of the group just following Professor without looking at the problem. (eka gonek passe anik gonnu serama yanawa) This is a Sinhala Phrase used in Sri Lanka.

    They talk of sequence then why do they have 4 ayannas registered with SLSI1134.
    This proves that they started correctly giving code points to all individual characters but got stucked without the technology & knowledge. Also no one in this group had the ability to list all the Sinhala characters. Each and every sinhala character is displayed in my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0. Even if I have missed you can add freely with version ups. In this publication I have accomodated Prof JB’s set of Sinhala Characters apart from the pali badhi akuru.

    There is no “matawadaya” in my system. If you want to use only Elu Hodiya you have the freedom of using it. If you want to mix with “mahapranna” still you can mix.

    The freedom of expression is fully given in my system. The public has the full freedom to use any sinhala character without any fear or favour.

    Since I have given absolute codepoints the software developers can develop the software with out any problem. Deta will be compatible.

    All this is impossible with SLSI 1134 = Sinhala unicode

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  122. Donald,
    I agree that we have to get back to topic. I have one problem though. Aren’t both blogs (Unicode and WiFi-MESH) targeting only prof VK? It could be either you guys are trying to pull him down intentinally or he must be one of those people who should be stoned to death of what is written in both the blogs are correct.

    Did you answer my question on how much will it cost to implement your suytem.

  123. Dear L Siriwardena,

    Dont you think Sam is related to Ranil W?

    It looks like both have same genes. Never want to step down, no matter how badly they fail.

  124. SinhalaLover need the cost

    I told you part has to be develop outside Sri Lanka
    A part in Sri Lanka

    I will breifly out line the areas

    Identify Sinhala Character — I have done
    I have to publish in media and get a feed back
    Digitizing all Sinhala Characters
    Processing the data base
    Processing the Dictionery
    Software development
    Paying Royalties for other developers
    Buying applications
    Buying Computers
    Employing Software engineers 25 to 30
    Renting a location
    Consultation fees (foreign & Local)
    Islandwide Workshops & Testing of Software
    Travel Expenses, Corrections\version ups
    Legal fees
    Converting the final product to Linux, Microsoft and Apple
    CD burning and Distrbution

    This is only for Sinhala and for Tamil repeat the same costs

    You can put values based on todays rates and get at an aprox figure
    I can bring the cost down if you can assist me in any area listed above.
    You will understand how much work has to be done to give the product in 12 -18 months

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  125. More, more and more (from Dharamsala meeting on WiFi)

    Quote””it was during this event that prof maliciously threw out a paper which was submitted by contreversial Donald to do a presentation. So, Donald-VK grudge started here and poor””unquote

    I presented a paper for 22nd National Information Technology Conferance = held 3-4 July 2003 at Colombo Plaza (today – Cinnamon)

    My paper was rejected but Mr Dimuth Abeysuriya invited me to a public lecture at the university.

    I was the first person to tell the public in Sri Lanka that complete Characters has to be used in a computer.

    Now I will quote something more

    All quoted by

    “Proceedings of the 22nd National IT Conferance Colombo Sri Lanka” ISBN 955-9155-11-3

    Topic “The Reality of Digital Government By Prof V K Samaranayake”

    Page 5, section 4.1 Issue

    ….. Need to use National Languages…
    ….. Need for Litracy aand languages Skills

    Page 7 Section 4.2

    Content
    – Use of Local languages
    …… Although UNICODE standards have been available for both languages since 1998, there are many more problems to be solved

    This remark from the professor himself proves that Sinhala UNICODE is incorrect and incomplete.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  126. Costs, costs.

    All you need is to analyze the writing rules — orthography. Any person who uses Sinhala knows its orthography. It means the correct way to write.

    Then read this (Microsoft):
    http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/volt/volt0.htm
    Define font-manipulating tables according to the needs of the language.

    Some more reading at Unicode.org too is useful.

    Buy a font-making program: e.g. Font Maker 5.0. About Rs 10,000

    Draw the glyphs and test and test until you are pleased with the result.

    This font would have rules that a word processor might like to be aware of.

    The cost: Programs plus the computer is Rs 150,000 or less.

    Labor would be worth about three months salary for a programmer or two.

    I will do it for $12,000.

    The font would best work on Windows XP (OpenType), but would be pretty good on older computers too (TrueType).

  127. Tsunami: That’s a refreshing change of subject.

    I suppose if you plant visual detectors (cheap digital cameras) and then link them to some graphic program that can detect unusual recession of water level (not hard to do!), at least it could trigger an alarm in the vicinity and also send an electronic message to various control stations in the country.

    Tsunamis happen due to under water seismic disturbance like an earthquake. The folks in America too are grappling with this problem. Just like in any country, the problem is not the actual solution but to make it sound as complex as possible and then have the sharks descend on the money — just like the Unicode thing in Sri Lanka. Microsoft wants to sell new software by declaring all old OSs are useless for Sinhala and there is a panic rush to sell them to the government.

    What should happen is like what is going on in America right now:
    People are building the fence on Mexico border with their own money because the government is looking for billions for it. In Sri Lanka too the people should make fonts themselves and then let the market eliminate the useless.

  128. First Font Maker 5.0. will not be helpful. So far only one application is availble. It is a powerful application even better than fontographer.

    I will let you know the program once everything is finalized

    Also please note that What I have planed is not only font making.

    It is more than FONTs.

    Please let me know your contact details to get at you when I get the credentials

    I assume that you are interested to develop the default font area of the project.

    Once I do the basic & published there will be other developers who will make their own set of fonts. SInce it is made on the same theory text data will be compatible like english. With the default set you will be able to read & write.

    Please dont get confuse with fonts and my project. Font is also just one segment of the project.

    First get my credentials organized to take over the project.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  129. 1. Donuld Duck, has been making his font since late 90’s – at least you must have a demo …

    2. LK domain registry is a non profit, so it’s not ethical to own gov.lk webs. Like company registry it should be a more formal. Currently they do a somewhat good job than a government body.

    2. Owner ship of all gov.lk should be the governemnt. Then come the question of who will be the admin of gov.lk. who will host DNS. slt is not a choice as it is more private and too big and foolish in their modern thinking

    3. If we give it to ICTA, ICTA has to recruite a host master complex management sturucture. give it to dialg, and they will outsource to someone and someone outsource to another and so on … so all business models are practically out.

    LK domain has been good over the years, has a good system, supported by University of moratuwa and ICT community.

    4. Actually .lk is owned by LKNIC, the leagal side is that nothing wrong in it. They were first to register it with intenic which is anothother non profit

    5. Best protection would be include LK domain registar and it’s role in ICT bill. the sale of domains can bring sustainable reveuenue to NIC.LK, much easier than a ministry.

    6. In terms of DNS Records, the govenment should setup it’s own datacenter and servers. Government should be able to create it’s own ICT infrastuctyre like Army, Navy, Airforce and Police, The simple reason is Information warfare is coming in age. Dont leave security on private sector who whould be profit oriented. Government information is valueble.

    Donald must at least in his life agree to make one good remark about anything else others has done than being lone elephant attacking everything he is not part of …

    get da man otta da net

  130. Quote
    has been making his font since late 90
    Unquote

    I am not talking about any font making. You are not aware of ISO 10646.
    Ia m talking about the National Std for Sinhala Characters (Letters) SLSI 1134 is incorrect and proved byond reasonable doubt

    Now You are talking about .lk Domain. This is also a bigger problem in Sri Lanka.

    Yes dot lk are protecting expired Domains. E mails go unanswered.

    Answer this

    See who owns gov.lk site

    Top Level Domain
    gov.lk is registered to LK Domain Registry
    Payment Due Date: 2005-01-01
    gov.assn.lk registered to ICT Agency of Sri Lanka

    Domain priu.gov.lk is registered in the Sri Lankan Domain Registry for Presidential Secratariat
    Registration Agent: LKNIC

    This leaves us who is the government of Sri Lanka (priu.gov.lk or gov.lk)

    Is it ICT agency or Presidential Secratariat???

    You can see who control the IT sector in Sri Lanka.
    They control the gov.lk .

    Poor Hon President (Minister of IT) who is unaware of who is cutting grass under his own feet!!!
    This is a national security problem. I warn you Hon President.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  131. Donald,

    Yes, of course we all know you are NOT talking about a fonts system.

    However, there are so many people;

    (a) who do not understand what you tell
    (b) who understand what you tell, but still do not feel it is the best system or a better system than Unicode

    So the best thing is not to wait until ICTA or anyone takes steps (saying if my system is approved anyone can make fonts for it) but ASSUME your system is approved, GO AHEAD let someone make fonts on it and then we all, including the laymen can compare the two systems and see which is the best.

    Remember for centuries there were people who thought air travel was possible, but most of the people only believed it only after Wright brothers invented the airplane…

    Now what you do is something like complaining about Concord (or any airplane we have today) and saying we can make a better aircraft, if we adopted your blueprint.

    You know, you may be correct. But nobody will believe you until you practically do it and prove it.

    Nobody, including some of the top scientists of the day believed splitting atom was possible, till Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in spite of so many scientific papers on it. That is how the world reacts.

    So instead of wasting your time here, WRITING about your system, go ahead BUILD some PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS of it and demonstrate it. Then we all can see which is best.

    Unless you do so, even in another ten or twenty years, you will tell the same story. You will never beat Dino and clan.

    In that sense, I think the kids in Mahawilachchiya are smarter than you because as somebody said, they have DEMONSTRATED their capability by beating Dino.

  132. testing

  133. Mr. Gaminitillake,

    You said, “Font Maker 5.0. will not be helpful”.

    Then here are some more programs that make fonts:
    Windows and Macintosh:
    http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/

  134. Mr. Gaminitillake and Not Impressed:

    Some more font making programs:
    (The one at SourceForge is free)
    http://fontlab.com/Font-tools/FontLab-Studio/

  135. Donald and Not Impressed:

    I think we are having server problems. Both my last massages got clipped following the web link. Anyway, this is what I am trying to say:

    We need only one person to make the font. Here are the requirements:

    Knowledge: (No University degree required)
    1. Good computer literacy (Know how to learn to use a new program)
    2. Working knowledge of English
    3. Good understanding of Sinhala orthography
    4. Learn the Unicode standard especially in relation to Indic

  136. Again it got cut! Continuation…
    Knowledge: (No University degree required)
    1. Good computer literacy (Know how to learn to use a new program)
    2. Working knowledge of English
    3. Good understanding of Sinhala orthography
    4. Learn the Unicode standard especially in relation to Indic

  137. Try again:

    5. Learn Microsoft Fontography

  138. Knowledge: (No University degree required)
    6. Learn Typography

  139. More…

    Resources:
    1. One computer
    2. Unlimited access to the Internet
    3. A font making program (TypeTool or Font Creator are sufficient)
    4. Optionally some graphic program (Inkscape is good and free)
    5. A brain that works decently and logically
    6. Time to devote at least for three months
    7. A group of people willing to test and critique the font

  140. HeWhoMustNotBeNamed

    My Dear Friends,

    Yes, without even anyone realizing it, this blog is creating history.

    For the first time in Sri Lanka, this blog gave us, the mere citizens of this country, the opportunity to openly speak what we think about the ICT developments. NOW WE REAP THE HARVEST.

    Who thought this open discussion would one day result in key policy decisions? It looks like it has already happened, much earlier than we thought.

    Prof. Samarajeewa can now celebrate (with Champaign and all) because influencing policy is one of the key objectives of his organization! Cheers! He has done it this time even without lifting a finger. He did not even contributed to the blog, than once saying he is not the moderator.

    I do not say the two are necessarily related, but a critical positive policy decision related to some of the topics we have discussed here, has been taken LAST THURSDAY. (No man, we do not want the credit!)

    Yes!!! The award of the USD 15 million El-Gee-En tender to Sam’s Sung has been DELAYED by one month, and now it has been taken to an APPEAL BOARD! Instead of directly awarding it to the company Sam wanted it to go, the other two bidders were asked to make appeals! (This right has been denied to them till last week.)

    Cancellation of this tender and recalling it is quite possible. Hope it will be a fair game next time.

    It looks like somebody higher up has some sense, than blindly approving Sam’s stupid decisions. You are a wise guy, Mister El Double U.

    Too bad, Sam! Didn’t we all know you were counting fingers till this was awarded to Sam’s Sung, the company you duly represented locally?

    Too bad, Sam! Somebody higher up thinks that you have not done an honest job as the head of the Technical Evaluation Committee.

    Too bad, Sam! Perhaps now you will never get your promised Korean Won!

    Too bad, Sam! Now Sunday Leader will never publish a quarter page photo of yours.

    But cheer up, Sam! After all everything happens for good. Nobody wants to spend his last days being dragged to courts after being named corrupt.

    Long live blogs!

    Long live e-Democracy!

    Happy birthday Sam! (We all will join the party at Hotel Galadari.)

  141. Quote”(b) who understand what you tell, but still do not feel it is the best system or a better system than Unicode”
    unquote

    I talk of NATIONAL STANDARD for SRI LANKA all national standards are accepted in UNicode or ISO 10646.

    see: quote
    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb

    section
    Has UCS been adopted as a national standard?

    Yes, a number of countries have published national adoptions of ISO 10646, sometimes after adding additional annexes with cross-references to older national standards, implementation guidelines, and specifications of various national implementation subsets:
    unquote

    So your question of UNicode is not a problem

    Quote
    BUILD some PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
    unquote

    Call me I will give you the answer

    Quote
    capability by beating Dino
    unquote

    my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0. This is the base for the NAtional Standard for Sinhala.

    Let me know your address to post one.

    Regarding the application to make the fonts
    It has to support the two byte system 64,000 characters
    Fontographer do support but the better one is ——-

    Remember you have to draw over 3000 characters.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  142. Quote
    “More… Resources:”
    Unquote

    You are correct this is only for the FONT development

    My project is not only font but more than a font

    Donald Gaminitilake
    Colombo

  143. Donald,

    [quote] Remember you have to draw over 3000 characters. [unquote]

    No Donald, you do not have to. Most of the times the way alapili, papili and ispili are being used is the same. For example, if you have all the consonuts and just one alapilla drawn you can have one set of ‘Kaa’s , ‘Gaa’s and ‘Jaa’s. There are only very few exceptions like ‘Du’.

    Font creation is not a difficult task. I myself had created one fonts set when I was young and had some time to kill.

    If you do not create practical applications, you will never convince anybody.

    Instead of wasting your time here, why not you first attend to that? Given the number of posts you do here I assume you have lots of time to kill.

  144. Dear Not impressed

    We have to go byond the type writer concept

    It is not only to key in some text but to use in OCR , Text to voice, Voice to Text, etc etc
    All this is possible with the implementation of my system.

    This is the road of IT. There will be many other developers who will use this road to make many applications. Job opportunities for many people. A new industry will open up in Lanka.

    Pls send me your postal address I will send you my book. You can get my email from http://www.akuru.org

    Once you see the book you will become ” Mr. impressed”

    “”lots of time to kill.”” I donot have time to kill but I must protect the langauge Sinhala.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  145. Dear Shocked
    quote
    4. Learn the Unicode standard especially in relation to Indic
    unquote

    This have to be changed. A new thinking for all indic languages will evolved with my system.

    I have given a presentation at 3rd South Asian Print Congress.

    Donald Gaminitillake, (2003) Obstacles for the future development of ICT Technology and Pre Press Technology, 3rd South Asian Print Congress. Colombo Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Association of Printers, August, 15 & 16, 2003

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  146. Thank you, Mr. Gaminitillake.

    I think I like ‘Not Impressed’ to make a font too since he has experience. It’s not killing time. It’s National Service, shrama dana! Do it man! You will make money too by convincing the powerful that this is the best font, or you can offer it the poor down trodden to finally use a font that is friendly to old and new computers both.

    Go for it!

    Donald, ‘Not Impressed’ is right, you better get cracking too making your font. If you don’t, your wonderful work, speeches, copyrighting etc is like ‘gangata kapapu ini’. Give your blogging a respite and get to work. be a patriot and help the poor people (who do not know what Galadhari means) the ability to use a computer.

    Go! Go!! Get to work.

  147. Samarajiva,

    You just stated the problem that we have. It’s not so much ICT or Unicode or font. It is the lack of Internet access to the masses.

    ADSL to schools, libraries and religious institutions is possible and CHEAP to do. You do not need a foreign company for it. Internet access can be had from satellite service providers at strategic points of the country. The we can pipe them out through T1 lines or inexpensive light beam connection (ronja) to Telephone Exchages near the institutions to be given access. Each TE would have a DSL Multiplexer (DSLAM). The telephone lines going to schools, libraries and such would be fed through the DSLAM. A DSL modem at the subscriber end would demodulate the continuous (always-on) Internet signal.

    My company would do a pilot if you guys support.

  148. What JC says is correct

    What JC does not understand is the SLT monopoly

    example

    If you use a mobile in anuradhapura and call a SLT number in the same location.
    The call will flow to Colombo on mobile towers and then get into the SLT network
    and goes back to Apura

    This is because SLT is not giving gate ways at other locations other than Colombo

    On peak hours the Colombo gateways get bolcked and customers suffer.

    Also If you go byond Pasyala on Kandy road the mobiles go dead.
    There are lots of problems for mobile companies electing towers getting the power supplies etc etc.

    Mobile guys are dead scared to expose these problems or individuals.

    There are Dinos all over in various areas. I hope we can get rid of them one by one.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  149. Doanld,

    What I tell you is not to develop everything at once. Just develop one application so that we can compare. If you can convince I am sure there will be so many others to put money.

    Why does it need 25-30 software developers? Just one person can do it within 2 weeks or one months, even among other work. I know because I have done it.

    So instead of just preaching, do it and demonstrate us it is better than Unicode.

    I think Harsha Purasinghe score a point here because he has shown that you can send SMS with Unicode standard. Yes, it has limitations, but the point is Donald you have not even done that.

    TRY TO BE A DOER, NOT A CRITIC.

    Critics have never contributed anything to the world. Lear from Harsha Purasinghe. Take a lesson from Mahawilachchiya kids.

    If you do not do this, I am sure even in another ten years, say on May 21, 2016 you will still be talking about the incompleteness of Unicode, while you do not have any other solution.

    Man, you can write ten or hundreds of books, but what is important is doing something, not go on writing what you can do.

    I WILL NEVER BE MR. IMPRESSED IF I DO NOT SEE SOMETHING YOU HAVE DONE.

    Do at least one application and show us. Then I may be impressed.

    Otherwise, please do not waste our time.

  150. What JC Ahangama is proposing is neither cheap nor easy. Connecting to the Internet backbone through a satellite is expensive and relying entirely on it for most of Sri Lanka’s international bandwidth will be prohibitive. One of the main challenges in Sri Lanka is that it has limited backbone and the solution Ahangama is proposing would involve laying T1 lines. This again is not a cheap solution and neither is it easy. eSri Lanka was designed to address that problem but as I have mentioned in eSri Lanka design post, Dialog is privately investing $450 million in the next two years to upgrade its infrastrcture and concomitantly developing Sri Lanka’s telecom infrastructure too. Dialog plans to invrest among other things, on fiber optic backbone and intends to provide broadband Internet connectivity to most of the island delivered wirelessly.

  151. Quote’you can send SMS with Unicode standard.”unquote

    This is wrong not with the SLSI 1134 he has done it in a different way.
    HE never answered my question posted to him.

    Quote from my posting”Even your limited SMS is based on full characters not parts of characters. am I correct?” unquote

    Quote”Man, you can write ten or hundreds of books, but what is important is doing something, not go on writing what you can do.” unquote

    If you are not prepared to read my book or at least to go through it.
    Why cant you give me an address.

    This book is the base for revised Sinhala SLSI.

    Are you the professor himself!!!

    I quote from a part of mail I had received
    “Did you not get my earlier message that said I got your book? It is really complete. Thank you.”
    unquote

    I quote from another mail I received
    “” I got your book.Thank you very much for this. This is the best detailed sinhala document I have ever seen.I have not seen a single book like this before. This is what the authorities should do. How can a non sinhala person can learn about the language without this (entire character set) ? I am not a sinhala professional and I was asking this from the people who work on sinhala for atleast a book that contains this completely for many years and until now no one were able to show this except u.””
    Unquote

    The Sinhala Encyclopedia is yet incomplete. No Sinhala – English DIctionary to refer.

    A similar product in form of poems was done by Attaragama Rajaguru Bandara.Several centuries ago. Cumaratunge Munidaasa’s “Purana Sinhala Akuru Karanaya” (ISBN 955-9170-42-2 by Visidhunu Publishers)

    These are not in a form of a matrix as I have done.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  152. Dear Devikar

    Sri Lanka’s squore area is one tenth of the size of State of California
    One sixth of Japan

    Still We are unable to cover the whole island!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  153. Donald,

    Come on man, at least Harsha Purasinghe can send few Sinhala characters in SMS.

    Can you send at least one character using your system?

    Isn’t this someone naked pointing out the torn spots in another’s dress?

    As for your book, I do not believe in ‘pothe guras’. I believe in those who can work. Not those who can criticize.

    Bye.

  154. Quote”at least Harsha Purasinghe can send few Sinhala characters in SMS.” unquote

    He is not using the SLSI 1134 = Sinhala unicode.

    That is why he is not posting any comments on his method of SMS. He is using full complete characters.

    I am not a ‘pothe gura’ but Simple programming starts with paper and pencil.

    All educated software developers knows it

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  155. Hi,

    Unicode Sinhala is a Phonetic System
    ====================================

    South Asian writing systems are unified by their syllabic nature, a letter usually represents a consonant and a vowel. Then there are the vowel modifiers, e.g. ispilla, which change the sound of the vowel.

    The codepoints in Unicode Sinhala represent sounds not ‘images’/characters/letters. A unique codepoint is given to each ‘sound’ of the Sinhala language.

    Note, I have simplified the following explanation a little.

    We first have all the *independent* vowel sounds: a, aa, ae, aee, i, ii, u, uu, e, ee, o, oo, ai, au, etc.

    Then we have all the consonant plus ‘a’ sounds: ka, kha, ga, gha, etc.

    Then we have all the *dependent* vowel sounds, these are the vowel modifiers that are combined with the consonant. e.g. ispilla. Why are they different from the *independent* vowels? Because, firstly they remove the inherent ‘a’ sound in the ‘consonant’ then they add their own vowel sound. e.g. (kayanna)(ispilla): first the ispilla removes the kayanna’s inherent ‘a’ then replaces it with ‘i’ sound. Therefore *dependent* vowels differ from *independent* vowels in their phonetic characteristics.

    Each of these sounds, all the independent vowels, ‘consonants’ and dependent vowels are given a unique codepoint.

    e.g. The ‘koo’ sound ((kombuva)(kayanna)(aelapilla)(al-lakuna)) is represnted in Unicode Sinhala as two codepoints, the ‘consonant’ ‘ka’ and the *dependent* vowel ‘oo’. However, the user will always see (kombuva)(kayanna)(aelapilla)(al-lakuna).

    JC Ahangama wrote: “Sinhala Unicode is not Unicode compliant! What? Unicode is not Unicode?”

    This is incorrect, Unicode Sinhala is compliant with Unicode’s phonetic system for South Asian scripts. Refer to my attempted explanation above.

    Donald Gaminitillake wrote: “They talk of sequence then why do they have 4 ayannas registered with SLSI1134. This proves that they started correctly giving code points to all individual characters but got stucked without the technology & knowledge.”

    This is also incorrect. Unicode Sinhala is based on a phonetic system, thus it is essential for the unique sounds ‘a’, ‘aa’, ‘ae’, ‘aee’ to be given codepoints. Refer to my attempted explanation above.

    Donald wrote:
    ——————————————————————
    That is why I always ask the code points for
    1. Where is repaya?
    2.Where is yansaya?
    3.Where is “DU”
    4. WHere is “kayanna badhi shayanna” to write the name of our President
    and many more letters or characters
    ——————————————————————

    Repaya = (0dbb)(0dca)(200d)
    Yansaya = (0dca)(200d)(0dba)
    “DU” = (0daf)(0dd4)
    “kayanna badhi shayanna” = (0d9a)(0dca)(200d)(0dc2)

    Explanation
    ———–

    (200d) = Zero Width Joiner (This codepoint is used/shared amongst all the South Asian scripts), it allows us to join the sound of two consonants.

    (0dca) = Al Lakuna (Hal Kireema)

    Let’s take the example of vayanna (0dc0) followed by a yansaya. This would be encoded as (0dc0)(0dca)(200d)(0dba). If we examine the sound components you have (0dc0)(0dca) representing al-vayanna, the Zero Width Joiner (200d) which has no sound and yayanna (0dba). The user will see (vayanna)(yansaya).

    Misconceptions
    ==============

    Nalaka Gunawardene wrote: “As much as I agree with our passionate advocate Donald on Sinhala unicode standardisaton”

    On which aspect of Unicode Sinhala do you agree with Donald?

    Dharma Gamage wrote: “If it is a standard why not the latest version of Windows do not support Sinhala? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DICTATE PEOPLE TO *DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL* Sinhala fonts?”

    It is really simple, the latest version of MS Windows was released *before* the Unicode Sinhala standard was finalised. Go and ask MS to release the next version of Windows sooner.

    Dharma Gamage wrote: “If the characters appear correctly, theoritically there is no reason why we cannot do that with Sinhala.”

    I was able to see the 5 scripts you included. Actually more because the Japanese section you included had Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana scripts. So in total 7 scripts were visible. I was also able to read the Unicode Sinhala that you included in ‘post number 88’ and ‘post number 90’ too. So we are already doing it with Sinhala.

    Dharma Gamage wrote:
    ———————————————————————-
    1. If I download your ICTA Sinhala fonts set from http://www.fonts.lk and install in my computer, will I be able to make posts like this? Yes or No?

    2. Will others be able to read it without having your ICTA Sinhala fonts set installed in their computers? Yes or No?
    ———————————————————————-

    (1): If you are running MS Windows XP you can install the Unicode Sinhala patch and you’ll be able to read the Sinhala that you have already posted in previous messages.

    (2): If others are using operating systems without Unicode Sinhala support they will not be able to read it. But don’t worry, once MS releases a new operating system, they’ll be able to come back to this blog and read the Sinhala that you have already posted in previous messages. By using Unicode Sinhala in your postings you have future-proofed your contribution so that the generations to come can look back at what you wrote.

    Dharma Gamage wrote: “Let me ask how RECENTLY.”

    It was finalised in 2004, it’s actually called SLS1134:2004.

    JC Ahangama wrote: “You see the impact of this if you try to backspace to change a koyanna into a keyanna. You have to delete the entire group and retype.”

    I just tried this and what you stated is *NOT* true. In a program called ‘gedit’, on GNU/Linux, I was able to change a ko yanna to a ke yanna by simply hitting backspace once.

    JC Ahangama wrote: “This means Wijesekera keyboard has to be modified …”

    Actually, we can just use the Wijesekera keyboard in the same way it is used now. The user can type ‘kombuva’, then ‘kayanna’, then ‘aelapilla’. The Wijesekera keyboard driver will buffer (temporarily store) the ‘kombuva’, ‘kayanna’ and ‘aelapilla’ till a syllable is completed, then it will convert it to ‘kayanna’ (0d9a) followed by (0ddc) which represents ‘kombuva haa aela-pilla’. Thus Unicode Sinhala is most definitely phonetic based.

    Suhada Sedara: “Why is the Sinhala Unicode the best tool available to implement eGovernment in Sinhala in Sri Lanka?”

    Unicode Sinhala is an international, free and open standard which allows Sri Lanka to address all it’s Sinhala requirements. It is technically quite an elegant solution which additionally supports Pali touching letters.

    Donald Gaminitillake wrote:
    ———————————————————————-
    Page 7 Section 4.2

    Content
    – Use of Local languages
    …… Although UNICODE standards have been available for both languages since 1998, there are many more problems to be solved

    This remark from the professor himself proves that Sinhala UNICODE is incorrect and incomplete.
    ———————————————————————-

    These problems were solved by ~ 2004 when SLS1134:2004 was finalised.

    Regards,
    Harshula

  156. Repaya = (0dbb)(0dca)(200d)
    Yansaya = (0dca)(200d)(0dba)
    “DU” = (0daf)(0dd4)
    “kayanna badhi shayanna” = (0d9a)(0dca)(200d)(0dc2)

    This is type writer technique. NOT Computer technique.

    Quoting from SLSI 1134

    Repaya = (0dbb)(0dca)(200d) This what Harsula had written

    0dbb =Sinhaya letter rayanna
    0dca=Sinhala sign al-lakuna
    200d= zero width non -joiner

    So where is the code point for repaya?

    Like wise

    Yansaya = (0dca)(200d)(0dba)
    0dca =Sinhala sign al-lakuna
    200d = zero width non -joiner
    0dba = Sinhala letter yayanna

    So where is the code point for yansaya?

    Like wise

    DU

    0daf=Sinhala letter alpapraana dayanna
    0dd4=Sinhala vowel sign ketti paa-pilla

    So where is the code point for “DU”

    Likewise
    “kayanna badhi shayanna” =
    0d9a=Sinhala letter alpapraana kayanna
    0dca= Sinhala sign al-lakuna
    200d=zero width non -joiner
    0dc2=Sinhala letter muurdhaja sayanna

    So where is the code point for “kayanna badhi shayanna”

    None of the above four are registered in the unicode as code points just bluffing with type writer technique

    Quote from Harsula

    “Like wise for SInhala we have few code points registered with unicode rest of the characters or letters are not registered with unicode.”
    Unquote

    Is this more than enough for me to prove that all SInhala characters are not registered in unicode. Just giving a type writer technique and say the problems are solved.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  157. Correction

    Quote from Harsula

    “Like wise for SInhala we have few code points registered with unicode rest of the characters or letters are not registered with unicode.”
    Unquote

    This is not a quote from Harsula but by self

    Sorrry for the error

    Anyway Not all SInhala letters are registered with SLSI1134 = Sinhala unicode
    Please download the chart from unicode and observe

    —–
    Content
    – Use of Local languages
    …… Although UNICODE standards have been available for both languages since 1998, there are many more problems to be solved

    This remark from the professor himself proves that Sinhala UNICODE is incorrect and incomplete.
    ———————————————————————-

    These problems were solved by ~ 2004 when SLS1134:2004 was finalised.

    ——-

    Why not the professor himself answer.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  158. Harsula,

    [It was finalised in 2004, it’s actually called SLS1134:2004.]

    Please do not mislead the readers.

    I am not talking about SLS1134. In fact, I have never talked about SLS1134. I talk about Sinhala Unicode.

    If Sinhala Unicode is complete, why we need another SRI LANKAN standard?

    Unicode is the international standard and it was approved in 1998 and NOT in 2004.

    By saying the standard was approved in 2004, you confirm Donald’s claim that Sinhala Unicode is incomplete.

    It is a pity we do not have Prof. Samaranayake or Prof. J. B. Dissanayake to defend this.

  159. Harshula, thank you for being so kind to explain.

    We need people like you and Dharma, not mud slingers. You took pains to explain the current setup very well and showed the principles underlying the Unicode font. We should learn to discuss things like this than taking criticisms and misunderstandings as personal attacks.

    You said,
    The codepoints in Unicode Sinhala represent sounds.
    Also, you included the diphthongs *ai and au* (thanks for teaching this star enclosing style) within the vowel list and ‘ka’ as one of those sounds (in your demo of how koyanna is formed). The Sinhala Unicode code page too confirms it:
    For the reader’s benefit, it is at:
    http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0D80.pdf

    Actually, I can call these ‘sounds’ letters-of-the-alphabet. Unicode calls them *Base characters. Everything is built upon them. The problem is in the definition of the fundamental unit that is used to construct the font. However, the fault is not with Lankans at all.

    It goes back historically to Indian ISCII group for basing everything on the alphabetic characters. (The invention of the word Abugida and categorizing Indic as one of those ‘writing systems’ are also to be blamed.) The users of romanized alphabets are accustomed to think of the letters as representations of *fundamental* units of sounds (with some exceptions like X). This is how we should have looked at the problem too. Indic being Indo-European is not too different from the romanized languages. You split the Kayanna into hal Kayanna and Ayanna and Abudiga goes to H***. Indic and European languages have so much in common than Arabic and Indic which they call Abugida.

    Now it is too late and I don’t think we have the willingness to change it. That makes me sad. So, this is only a lamentation and an invitation to join me to shed tears.

    The Sinhalese thought correctly before Unicode was standardized for Sinhala.
    The SinGlish program used the ‘sound’ concept beautifully.
    http://www.geocities.com/naturalsinglish/singlish.html
    (Reader, the above link is for you to click and see it.)
    It used Hal Kayanna as the basic unit than Kayanna. It simply constructed the written words as we typed PHONETICALLY. Again, koyanna was k, o, o, if I recall correctly. If it uses the US-International keyboard, the transliteration would be near perfect.

    This is similar to how Unicode does as you showed except it is ‘ka’, ‘oo’. Where the ‘oo’ has to strip the ‘a’ from ‘ka’ to correctly make Koyanna. Smart font, yet its hell to think about its ramifications. First like you said, wait for the next version of Windows and everything would be fine. Everything would be fine for Microsoft. We all have to buy that OS. It puzzles me why the Lankans look at it like cadgu. The money has to be paid by somebody, and it’s a lot! If it comes as AID, that means subjugation — loan, loan pardoning etc. It’s demeaning.

    Besides, I don’t know about you, upgrading to a new OS is risky. It was hell that I had to go through to port my work to a Windows XP just to remain in the Google Unicode discussion group. It was a calculated risk I took and it ended up expensive.

    A more fundamental problem is that Sinhala script impacts the Sinhala users in a subtle way — unnecessarily. I emphasize, UNNECESSARILY. Unlike the other Indic languages, Sinhala can be represented by Basic Lain Latin-1 code pages (ISO-8859-1). Adapt Icelandic (a recently romanized European language) by extending it a bit. All characters are typable and available on regular fonts.
    Check this out:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhala_alphabet

    You’d immediately say, ‘You can’t do Amba Bayanna’?’. You are right. That’s hard, but Unicode’s context based substitution could handle it. Here’s my drift: Basing Sinhala script on Latin-1 is superior to basing it on Unicode Sinhala code page.

    Getting back to the tech stuff, consider the Singlish program. Now, TrueType, which is backward compatible, supports ligatures. If we use only the font tables used by TrueType might we not able to make a font that treats ‘ka’ as a ligature? Also kaa, ki, kii, ku, kuu etc.? Of course, we cannot base it on Sinhala Unicode page. Instead, use Latin-1 code pages (ISO-8859-1). Properly done, it will gracefully fall-back to READABLE romanized form in case the font cannot run or not present in the reader’s computer.

  160. Thre’s something wrong with this server. I see these messages that belong to other blogs for example:

    samarajiva on May 20th, 2005 at 6:24 pm edit

    Hey great you’re online. Malathy says hi.

    Nice the date is 20. And the message number it showed was 1. I bet, the MySQL database is teetering.

  161. Hey, guy. I saw that funny thing again. Another message in another blog:
    ———————
    zzainudeen on May 20th, 2005 at 7:37 pm edit

    Where is the rest of the LIRNEasia community?
    ——————–

    Anyway, it looks like the blog program wants to kll the links. So I’ll replace the slashes with $ sign (I presume $ is all mighty):

    http: $$ http://www.unicode.org $ charts $ PDF $ U0D80.pdf
    http: $$ http://www.geocities.com $ naturalsinglish $ singlish.html
    http: $$ en.wikipedia.org $ wiki $ Sinhala_alphabet

  162. Here goes the next message in the other blog

    ——————-
    samarajiva on May 20th, 2005 at 7:47 pm edit

    This is not the easiest topic to blog or follow. Have we ever had this dense a colloquium? It’s too much even to take f-to-f.
    ———————

  163. Here’s another:

    ———————–
    164. sabina on May 20th, 2005 at 7:59 pm edit

    hanging in there so far (midnight)…maybe I should say goodnight?! downloads slow. Hi Malti

    Posting your comment…
    ———————

    Lesson:
    This blog is not the best for personal conversations

  164. I have met Prof. J. B. Dissanayake. I have spoken to him

    I am the only person who had given code points for his sinhala set of characters even more than Prof. J. B. Dissanayake thought

    He made the following comments

    1. my matrix may contain some characters with the same sound values
    2. There are some letters — he cannot think of a word containing such letter

    That is not a reason to eliminate any single letter (character) from the matrix.

    As general he has no objection having my set of Sinhala characters in a computer.

    I have the technology and the knowledge to solve the 1. (same sound values)

    It is already proved again and again that SLSI 1134 = Sinhala unicode is incorrect and incomplete

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  165. J C do not worry about the other comments that appear while you post your comment
    I have noticed it for sometime
    It may be a bug in the system

    Doanld Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  166. Thanks Donald for the comment.

    Dharma, You need to do some studying here.

    First, Unicode Inc. is a non-profit American Corporation that has as its Directors from profit motivated American corporations such as,
    Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM, Sybase, Adobe and two or three others.

    An aside:
    Be glad these are not Russian companies or Sri Lankan or even European institutions. If that happened, you’d have to pay each time you want to talk to them. For example, you can download or directly read the code pages Basic Latin and Latin-1 at Unicode.org. The same thing is also known as ISO-8859-1. You need to pay 64 Euros to BUY it from ISO.org. ISO is the European Corporation controlled by Europeans that rule us all in the Third World. Same is true if you want to get SLSI 1134 standard (Rs 425), which is only the proposal for the Unicode Sinhala that can be downloaded free from Unicode.org. So, the thing that is not worth the paper it is written on has to be bought. Socialism 101, buddy that’s how socialism works: two groups — Elites and the rest of us yakkos.

    Back to the subject:
    Unicode Charts means a large list of names of characters that have numbers assigned to them. Kayanna is called SINHALA LETTER ALPAPRAANA KAYANNA. It has the unique number 3482, which is its code point/position. We were assigned 128 code positions called Sinhala Unicode code page. All the characters of all the world’s languages are to be assigned names and code points. Also there are some blank areas and pages for Dingbats (funny characters) etc.

    We were a little slow at specifying our code names. First, they were proposed by an American because the Sinhala side was quiet. Then we woke up and got to work. However, we had to make a font too. It was too late for Microsoft to include our fonts into Windows XP or even its Service Pack 2. You know who we are. So, it’s futile talking about ourselves because we know who we are.

    Now we have just finished making the definitions necessary for font designers to make Windows compatible fonts. However, Microsoft says, “Too late. We have stopped Windows XP development. Next version would have Sinhala. Thank you.” I agree. XP means Cross-Platform (my copyrighted interpretation used in America). How long is it going to be at that place? So, as I told you before, go make money for Windows Vista or whatever it is going to be called.

    Seriously, I say we are not without hope. Here are some givens:
    1. We have to abide by whatever Unicode decides. Each one of the companies in the above list can buy the entire island. So, buying just one person is simple.
    2. Unicode says, a code point has a name like SINHALA LETTER ALPAPRAANA KAYANNA. And everything ends there. We do not tell what shape a letter defined for that location should look like. They continue…, for example, Latin-1 character set is used by three kinds of letters, Roman, Fraktur and Gaelic — we don’t care.

    So I say, Aha! Then Sinhala could be the fourth!

    3. Some scripts are so complicated we need to have smart fonts to show their letters as the user types. So, we have defined these substitution tables to be used to change the display as the user types characters.

    Now if you read my earlier message, you might get a faint idea of what I am proposing there.

  167. JC,

    I am a user. I do not mind how you do it. Unicode or Donaldcode or Harsulacode or JCcode it is the same to me. I do not care. I only need to use Sinhala in computers, which I cannot. That is all I know.

    One pundit says I can use Sinhala but I have to DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL. But again, it is not just me, but everyone I interact have to download and install. So it is not a solution.

    Another pundit says SLS1134 is incorrect, but he fails to show me what is correct. So there is no point listening to him.

    All these are pothe-guras. They say things are possible in theory, but fail to show me how they can be used in practical applications.

    What is the use of a theory if you cannot use it practically?

    To a user, NOTHING.

    So I do not have any other option that just waiting till Windows and other Operating systems incorporate Sinhala in to their new versions. Even then it will take at least another 5 years for everybody to use those versions.

    Think we have already missed the bus.

  168. To answer few on above!

    Sinhala Mobile SMS/Email
    ——————————
    We completed the Sinhala SMS prior to official annoucement/launch of Unicode standard which took place Feb 8th 2005. However, we facilitated Unicode Compliant Email on our Mobile Application which will come handy as this application can be used to collect information via mobile email in Sinhala. So someone who use the mobile app which we have developed can send a sinhala unicode compliant message as email where the recipient will receive it as TEXT. More information on Mobile Localalized SMS and related capabilities at present visit,

    http://www.microimage.com/mobile
    http://www.dialog.lk/gsm/en/evolution/sinhala_tamil_message.html

    So above shows a implementation of mobile based sinhala email which can be sent to PC’s which has sinhala unicode.

    Once everyone agrees on interoperability on a standard for mobile we will adopt the same like we adopted the Unicode when all important people concerning international vendors, local application developers and acedamics agreed to it.

    Sinhala Mobile Browser (Sinhala Unicode compliant)
    ————————————————————
    Sinhala Unicode complaint mobile browsing is now possible using a micro-browser which we have implemented for Java handsets. A micro-content portal designed using HTML / Sin Unicode Font will be able to browse through this browser. You can download the browser from http://www.dialogwap.com and can see contents ranging from news, commodity prices to many other. Soon there will be many contents appearing on sinhala unicode compliant micro portals.

    Sinhala Unicode
    ——————–
    From last year there are more and more technical implementations/adoptions of unicode standard now emerging and there are many available now from so many providers. However, as highlighted by many above everyone has to wait for next release of MS OS to support the language in MS/OS. I beleive versions of Linux too will be released soon.

    Sinhala Unicode Typing Support
    ————————————-
    Microimage released the commercial version of it’s Windows based sinhala application with the ability to type in both Standard keyboard as well as Phonetics.

    I am happy to say that, when I sent my 1st Unicode complaint email from Windows XP/Outlook to Dr. Gihan Dias who was using a email program on LINUX he successfully replied the message after viewwing which happened in 2004 when we were testing technical implementations. I beleive now, there must be so many who send emails in Sinhala Unicode in different O/S

    In conclusion when everyone should start using what’s available for MS/Linux platforms on Unicode then will realize that technically it works rather than attacking all out without even using and trying out.

    It woud be great if LirnAsia can commence a Sinhala Blog where people can type using a Sinhala Unicode Font? So people who dont have unicode can at least download and use the standard either on MS or Linux

    අපි සිංහල යුනිකෝඩ් භාවිතා කරමින් මෙය ඉදිරියට ගෙනියමුද?

    Thanks!

  169. Sorry in above thread forgot to put my name and hope people who have Unicode font can see the Sinhala message which I have typed using our unicode compliant drivers/application in phonetic keyboard entry mode. For other’s it says “Api Sinhala unicode bavitha karamin meya idiriyata geniyamuda?”

    Donald beleive you have XP, and hope you can download and start using sinhala in this thread. This is a request and would be great if you can do that. Appreciate if you start your critics after using it, and finding flaws in it, so people can improve it further with your opinions but on the STANDARD not on anything else which you propose. The reason is as highlighted many times everyone is going to adopt Unicode from international software giants, applicaiton developers local / overseas, government, Academic institutions and many others.

    Thanks – Harsha

  170. Harsha,

    The Sinhala came out mangled. After reading your second message I understand that you used
    unicode compliant drivers/application in phonetic keyboard entry mode.

    Could you write out here for the use of people like Dharma and me the best way to setup Windows XP to read Unicode? I have it myself but do not have the phonetic style keyboard driver.

    However, there is a problem with it that I can see. To verify this, switch your keyboard driver between Wijesekera and Phonetis and write the same message and check if the result is different. I suspect it is different. (you could send email to yourself.)

    The following was typed using th Wijesekera keyboard driver:

    මේක ලියන්ෙන් විෙජ්ෙස්කර න්රමයටයි.

    I have to get ready to go to work. It takes too long to write in Sinhala. But please check if you can read it properly when you have the Phonetic keyboard druver is enabled. Please tell me how to install it.

    Thanks.

  171. Dear Harsha

    Why should I buy XP

    The concept of internet and unicode is

    quote from http://www.unicode.org
    Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
    no matter what the platform,
    no matter what the program,
    no matter what the language.
    unquote

    Because SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete you are restricting public to use XP or Linux

    This is not ICT

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  172. JC,

    [Could you write out here for the use of people like Dharma and me the best way to setup Windows XP to read Unicode?]

    No, Thanks.

    What is the use me just setting up a Sinhala font, if the person at the other end see only few boxes.

    That is why users like me need a STARNDARD. I do not need FONT SETS.

    I am ready to wait for 1-2 years more, but give a STANDARD. Otherwise just a handful of people using Unicode fonts will not make any difference to the country.

  173. Quote
    That is why users like me need a STARNDARD. I do not need FONT SETS.
    unquote

    This is what I amtrying to do. I have proved it in 2003.

    But these people in Sri Lanka is not looking at it.

    World Bank gave the funds but they are not spending it wisely.

    The reason is not to educate the people with IT, Then “they” will not have any control over the young. This is the bottom line. In sri Lanka we have so called free education. There are hundereds of schools without proper trained teachers. When these children reach the age of 15 -16 they are compelled to sit for public examination. They are not done the syllabus since there are no proper teachers and the end result is very sad.

    If we have proper SLSI these students can learn the subjects using internet and pass the exams in flying colours.

    Donald Gaminitllake
    Colombo

  174. Donald,

    At least the Unicode people have offered a fonts set.

    You have not given anything. You only talk, talk and talk. No results to show.

    They are obviously one step ahead of you, and though they are yet to offer a standard, at any given point I will take their side, simply because they are ahead of you.

  175. “Unicode people have offered a fonts set.”

    They have funding

    There are grants in Sri Lanka but they give it only to government organizations not to any individual or a private company.

    I have proved SLSI 1134 is incorrect. I have asked Mr Manju several times to give me a mandate to work. Nothing comes through.

    I have lisited the things that I have to do in this thread.

    I have listed the sinhala character set — published it

    Please let me have your address to post my book.

    I thank you for helping me to checkmate the professor.

    First give me the credentials to work and then demand the product.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  176. [They have funding]

    This is a very feeble excuse, Donald.

    Don’t be a beggar.

    If they have waited for funding just after the tsunami, another 40,000 would have been dead!

    You do not need funds to develop a set of fonts, I have done that without even a cent of funding, so I cannot see why you cannot do that.

    I do not blame ICTA for not making use of you, because you are only a talk shop. You have shown no results at all. All you can do is talk, talk and talk. Rant, rant and rant.

    We do not want people who can only talk. We need those who can work.

    Secondly, if you need funds, there are so many other agencies always ready to fund initiatives in local languages. Do a search in the web and you will find how many are involved in this game. Build partnerships with them and go ahead.

    By talking and ranting you will achieve NOTHING. If you use this approch, I am sure even in another 10 years you will be just talking and ranting without moved even a centimeter ahead.

  177. Quote
    You do not need funds to develop a set of fonts,
    unquote

    My project is not a SET of FONTS

    Font is just a segment of the project

    You all are scared to even to see a copy of my book

    Quote
    We need those who can work.
    unquote

    I have done my part with my funds.

    the Ball is in their court.

    Why not we meet and talk.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  178. Donald,

    Please do not go to same stupid arguments that had been addressed already.

    As I already told I am a user. I am not interested in theory.

    Show me a practical application, then I believe you. Otherwise do not waste our time.

  179. JC,

    Well the fonts.lk sinhala kit supports only Wijesekara Keyboard driver. So you can type only in Wijesekara Kbd mode and for that you need to enable the driver as per the icon which you should be getting in the task bar. I presume you’ve been able to type successfully in many applications. However, above doesnt appear perfectly. Even for phonetic typing in unicode you need a kbd driver and what am using is our Helawadana Nawayugaya Phonetic Keyboard driver to type it. Now you may have many technical questions why this isn’t phonetic when I switch off etc., I can email you the details if you are really interested to know more. Helawadana Nawayugaya is a commercial applicaiton and more on this at http://www.microimage.com/helawadana.

    Autally speaking we are making a decent revenue by giving solutions till Microsoft supports the standard in FULL in their next version of Vista where people like Dharama too will switch in another 2 to 3 years time. Infact I agree with Dharma we missed the BUS and so we have to wait till the next bus comes. However, companies like microimage is providing some transporation to people who are willing to travel till the real / complete BUS arrives and everyone switch to it. And ofcourse since we are a local company unlike cash rich microsoft we need to make some money to cover our R&D cost for such services hence the cost invovled in such application. (About missing the BUS, I have highlighted earlier and people concerned should reply general public for this grave situation. Uotunately it’s too late to listen to their stories as well, rather adopt what’s been finalized and move forward and look for the future BUS’s to arrive)

    As we felt the Unicode standardization was a national importance we contributed in terms of development/R&D support for the Sinhala Enable Pack Development which was purely VOLUNTARY work. We are very happy to see the Free pack is been used by many and distributed with PC’s etc.

    W came up with a commercial variant, because the free pack is bit cumbersome to end users in terms of setting up installations and also doesnt support phonetics and other features required.

    Our company would have strongly objected and refused to adopt Unicode standard if we felt the unicode standard is not possible in terms of technical implementation. We would have been a much more powerful force than even Donald. However, we manage to cut applications successfully and supoprt it to windows platform where microsoft provided the DLL’s. (XP ofcourse). Also we manage to develop the world’s 1st Mobile Sinhala Browser which is 100% UNICODE COMPLIANT manage to incoprate sending emails via a mobile phone in UNICODE mode.

    Now, what people needs to do is to use unicode wherever and whenever possible. I have seen Unicode Blogs appearing but then people can argue it’s only for set of people who rally around Unicode which is not so great in my view. What I would like to see, poeple use Unicode Sinhala in blogs like this(lirnaisa) to common blogs that you get everywhere to discuss topics in sinhala ranging from politics to many other.

    In conclusion eveyrone has agreed to adopt Unicode standard as mentioned repeatedly over and over again many times above hence it’s too late to discuss about other ways of doing sinhala or another standard. However we cant afford to miss the next bus and drag this further, hence if you are looking for short term transport use something from fonts.lk for FREE or something like Helawadana from Microimage at a cost which you will get a better transportation, but if you are someone who wants to wait till the next BUS arrives, you can look forward for Sinhala support in next Windows version. And I hope the local MS office and it’s peopel concerned are really pushing Redmond to get this delivered and as per a recent discussion I was told that even Bill Gates himself has sent a personal note to expedite this. But I beleive Linux Bus will arrive or might have arrived by now as am not sure since am on MS platforms. You can get more on Linux Sinhala unicode support by visiting http://sinhala.linux.lk/

    Finally, Donald – I think we have spent a lot of time with you convincing technically. We tried(MI) and beleive so many organizations to academics to others tried too. Unfotunately, everyone seems to have wasted their respective time and effort and failed miserably in convincing you. I am sorry I really dont know how to answer you further for questions posted above. But, I humbly request you again either to technically prove your method and compete with all others so at least if CONVINCED people like Microsoft/Oracle/Red Hat and Linux groups to others will rally around you.

    Thnaks,

    Harsha

  180. Quote
    Microsoft/Oracle/Red Hat and Linux groups to others will rally around you.
    Unquote

    They need not rally around me or I need not rally around them

    All I want is to understand that SLSI 1134 is incomplete and incorect.

    Give me a mandate to perform using the available resources without wasting them.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  181. (I ma not sure if this message will show correctly because there is a slash in the quote below)

    Harsha,
    Man, you have patience. I do too. That’s is required of a programmer. Well, now I know what you do and for whom you work. I had no idea before.

    I say that a font can be produced very quickly that requires only Unicode support natively available in Windows XP (Uniscribe). It would be fully Unicode compliant but cannot use Snhala Unicode page because of the selection of the Vyanjanas carrying the implicit ayanna as the base characters. Had they were Hal akuru, we could have used that page. However, the Latin-1 pages are readily available for it because k=hal kayanna.

    Here are the expected results:
    Properly done, when you use the QWERTY keyboard, (maybe US-International) the font would respond with the correct base characters, ligatures etc.
    If a text made out of that font is sent to a machine that does not have the font, it would display in roman characters phonetically close to the original. (Four Sinhala Sanyaka akuru would be ambiguous). Pali and Sanskrit would show in either font (default or Sinhala) perfectly without ANY degradation.

    By the way, I have Unicode Sinhala and used it in Unicode Sinhala Google group. But it is unfair to use it in a public forum like this because those who do not have the Sinhala Unicode packge won’t be able to participate. So, my compromise is ROMANIZED SINHALA! “bas þiyá payí yanne kumataða?” That’s hard to read, I admit. But you can understand if you try. (Typing Unicode Sinhala is not a piece of cake either.)

    Here’s a quote from a message a math professor wrote to me today. It has those funny characters too and also illustrates the movement in America to use the lost letters of English alphabet.

    My subject line was “þis ænd ðæt” (This and that).
    ==========
    English has lost several letters (from a peak of 33 letters), but because the icelandic borrowed æ, þ and ð, these letters are still available to modern typists. Another letter lost was yogh (3), which looked like a script z. This is why sometimes you see nz in things like Menzies. The z here was actually a kind of g.

    One thing that is also missing in modern typrography, is the use of alternate forms for the same letter. We have only s, not this, and the long form of it. This long s lives on in calculus (the integration sign), and in / (derived from long-s, “solidus” means ‘shilling’, as in pounds, shillings and pence (old money))…

    I don’t particularly use ð a lot, but here is a sentence written with þ. The lower case þ in strath-pine is followed by a ‘p’. I attach a gif showing the Þ in handwriting, both upper-case and lower case. The sentence says “Þe way to Straþpine” (where a þ and p occur side by side, for comparison.
    ==========

    As you can see, Old English alpahbet can support the Sinhala alphabet pretty well. And when it is extended a bit we have a practical romanized Alphabet too. Not bad for email or blogs like this.

    Read about it here:
    http:(slashe)www.lanandwan.com(slash)Sinhala(slash)hoodiya.htm#hoodiya

  182. this is by far the longest debate we have had on our site; goes to show how important the matter under discussion is. i am willing to let you guys have a broader audience to all sri lanka on my prime time television show on policy and development (biz 1st: every friday at 9:30 on MTV). well, all SL is not really accurate because it is still only in english (how relevant to the topic), but the show attracts a wide decision making audience. The relevance to our show comes from the fact that ICTA is the agency responsible for ICT policy in this country.

    my only condition is that there can NOT be any personal attacks; it has to be strictly business. if interested we can think of how to structure it to fit a 19 minute debate.

  183. I am ready.

    1.
    I need internet facility with a computer.

    a second computer runs on Widows 98 or MAC OSX

    2.
    I will bring some displays

    3.
    Please provide the unicode chart of Sinhala chaaracters as the basic visual.

    4.
    Need some extratime before the debate with your staff to make prepare some visuals

    Are you ready

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  184. mr gaminitillake, ok. who will be the representative from the government side? my invite is open to prof. samaranayake, mr hattotuwa or mr deshapriya. should there be a third person as well? note we have all of 19, max 20 minutes.

  185. As a person who had vehemently advocated the free speech and open dialogue on the ICT issues, I appriciate the positive step taken by Mr. Harsha De Silva to open a platform for this debate to continue.

    There are many people who can speak from the side of government, namely (in the same order of relevancy):

    1. Prof. V. K. Samaranayake
    2. Dr. Gihan Dias
    3. Ms. Aruni Gunatilake
    4. Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe
    5. Mr. S.T. Nandasara
    6. Mr. Manju Haththotuwa (as far as I know, he was not directly involved in the project. So he might not know the technical details.)

    As far as I know, and as he himself had expressed here, Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya is only a user (perhaps the most important one.) So I do not think it is fair to bring him to the debate to represent the government. (anyway, he too can give his views as a user.)

    From the users’ side, please also find a representative either from Lake House, Upali newspapers or Wijeya newspapers. (These are three of the biggest users.) It is good a computer graphics artist from Sirasa TV itself can give his/her views as another heavy user of Sinhala in computer environment.

    Lets wait for an open and healthy debate.

  186. This is an extraordinary offer made on a blog for a primetime TV debate on an important ICT policy issue. We are honored this happened on our website.

    I would caution all parties, however, to appreciate the TV medium and its constraints (violated routinely on all the so-called political talk shows in LK TV).

    Brevity is key. In a 19 minute segment, there is no way all these people can be accommodated. I would suggest just one person each for the differing positions.

  187. Today’s newspapers state that “Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, said in an interview yesterday that he was confident that the software would be ready for consumers by January and for corporate customers this November.”

    Does this have a bearing on the debate on not needing to download Sinhala fonts?

  188. [quote] Brevity is key. In a 19 minute segment, there is no way all these people can be accommodated. I would suggest just one person each for the differing positions. [unquote]

    This depends entirely on the editor and interviewer. If there is a good interviewer who can ask right questions and good editor who can edit statements so that no single user dominates the show, you can even have two from each segment.

    Anyway, it is entirely up to the producer to decide. I just say, more the views we can accomodate, more the democratic the whole thing will be.

    Otherwise, it will look more like a cartoon programme featuring Donald Duck and Sam I am, throwing green eggs and Ham at each other. :-) (No pun intended.)

  189. Dear Dr Samarajeewa

    The debate is about what Sri Lanka registered with unicode consotium is incorrect and incomplete

    The Chart that show Sinhala characters in UNicode consortium is incorrect and incomplete

    dot lk dictates terms to the public and have a monopoly

    Microsoft , Apple or Linux has nothing to do with this. They are just vendors of products.

    SLSI & ICTA are responsible for these errors.

    I would prefer if I can meet you at my place and show you what the problem is.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  190. Donald,

    I am sure you know Prof. Samarajeewa is no more with government and not a policy maker any more. So there is not much point in showing your system only to him. He might be having so many other things in his plate.

    On the other hand, by attending this TV programme you can talk to a much wider audience. Use that opportunity.

  191. ms herath, thank you for your input. like rohan had mentioned we can’t have too many people during the discussion. however we can accommodate the views of a number of others in the 6 minute VTR that precedes the discussion; perhaps 5 or 6 (60 seconds is a long time on tv)

    I feel the right number for the discussion/debate is 2. mr gaminithillake is in by default; let us have the best representative from ICTA (government). otherwise it is not relevant to our show.

  192. I agree with Sandhya that demonstrating things to me is of little value (plus I am travelling in the next bit).

    On the TV program format, I said there should be one representative for each side. I did not say there were only two sides. It is upto Harsha and Producers to identify the third or fourth side and involve them in a tightly focused discussion.

    This discussion should go offline now, I think. If anyone wishes to communicate with any other person on the program asia [at] lirneasia.net can serve as link.

  193. This is my view on this subject of TV debate. It’s my personal view only and people can disagree and can always opt for this TV debate.

    What will be the debate topic? (this is the most important thing if it’s goning on Air)

    If it’s going to be on the subject of Unicode is incorrect/incomplete and whether it’s proven technically it’s no point having a debate due to following views.

    A debate should be necessary if there are considerable number of people who dis-agree with the present Unicode Standard. As per my view it’s only Donald who dis-agree with this established standard and trying to prove something which he has not technically developed.

    If Microsoft Vista is going to have Sinhala Support and so does Linux, and also when Unicode applications keep on emerging why do we need to challenge it when it’s technically proven? As repeatedly updated by many above who worked on Unicode, the issue was with the delay of establishing the standard hence it takes time to applications to come into market including direct support in OS. (No need to download fonts when OS support is embedded)

    Also, this will cause further confusion for general public as they will not understand technicalities behind this debate. Further, we are calling for a TV debate for something which is proven against something which is yet to be proven technically and only just theory.

    Sorry for this posting, but I cant find a rationale behind this debate. A public debate is fine for something which is not proven or not appropriate and cannot be acheived technically.

    Another thought is that at the end of the day the standard should technically come out in O/S’s to applications and in such scenario today all the key players have agreed and delivering on Unicode standard. So even hypothetically if donald is right do you’ll think all these players will agree to implement his method? Then what will happen to O/S support to all the applicaitons which are supposed to emerge with Sinhala?

    Another point is you should call for a debate if and ONLY IF donald also have a proven technically implemented solution which as he says automatically matches to others. So why not we ask him to develop such auto-matched standard then have a debate.

    Finally, this is my personal view and majority may think am wrong and a debate for Donald’s view is necessary. I posted this in the view of giving a logical explanation where this can cause further confusions to general public as whole. It would rather benefit everyone if a TV program can feature “What we have acheived with Unicode Standard since official release last year and what’s going to be available in future?”

    JC – Appreciate your views. Agree romanized sinhala is easy for people like us. I am typing phonetically in unicode using our drivers not wijesekara input. The statement “Api Sinhala unicode bavitha karamin meya idiriyata geniyamuda?” was typed in a flash using our phonetic drivers for unicode. However Wijesekara input is useful for the government and related people who are used to it for sometime. Further agree that for us it’s easy to use phonetics to type easily in blogs to email to other.

    Thanks – Harsha

  194. Dear Prof. Samarajeewa,

    Apologies, your last post was seen once I posted my one. Agree on your view to go offline. Further everyone has proved enough about Unicode standard, and perhaps the day Donald comes with a technical solution then another thread can be active somewhere to discuss the same.

    Thank you for providing such platform to openly discuss views/opinions.

    Thanks – Harsha

  195. mr purasinghe, i never said the topic was whether Unicode is incorrect or incomplete; it has to be broader than that to be meaningful to the wider audience. most people dont care about technical stuff; they need results.

    also note the core of the discussion need to be what the policy is and how it is impacting us all; people, business, government…

    no one is forcing anyone to do this debate; i only offered to highlight this in good faith so that hopefully things might get fast tracked and the network participation assymetry can be reduced.

    however, there are many other issues i can take up that is important to this country, so i dont want to waste your time and mine on this if you people think its not worth your trouble.

    thank you

  196. Dear Harsha

    If the corrections are made for Sinhala and introduce Tamil in the same way

    With my project New industry will born on the following areas.

    This will be done by the other “NEW” software developers in Sri Lanka.

    1. Distant Education in Sinhala and Tamil
    2. Sinhala / English / Tamil Translations
    3. O C R (scan document for editable text)
    4. Voice to Text (What you talk can be converted into editable text)
    5. Text to Voice (Make Computer to talk what you write)
    6. Send S M S in Sinhala and Tamil ( to any system)
    7. Digital Book publishing in Sinhala and Tamil
    8. Digital Music composing in Sinhala and Tamil
    9. Land Registration done in Sinhala and Tamil
    10. Court Proceedings online in Sinhala and Tamil
    11. Public Bus administration in Sinhala and Tamil
    12. Use GPS system in Sinhala and Tamil
    13. Bank documentations and Govt Certificates one online
    in Sinhala and Tamil
    14. New Industries – Job Opportunities for over 500,000
    15. More Productivity
    16. Quality published literature in Sinhala and Tamil
    17. Employment for Handicapped people

    And many more within several months of implementation

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  197. Ruvan Weerasinghe

    hi,

    tried to read as much of this thread as humanly possible in one sitting. being someone who was either involved or aware of the history of sinhala support on computers let me try to summarize very briefly the way i see it:

    1. several parties including the university of colombo developed sinhala font support (which amounted to both keyboard and display support in the good old days!).
    2. a cintec committee comprising of sinhala scholars of various persuations sat down to set some standards for terminology and keyboard layout and a standard ‘code’ in the 80’s.
    3. this work progressed failry slowly especially since most work was done on microsoft operating systems which kept changing drastically their input and rendering methods (from dos to win 3.x to win 95…).
    4. since none of these parties (including university of colombo) was a microsoft developer no access to internals were available so that sinhala support lagged the OS by several years!
    5. almost when the people involved were giving up with keeping up with microsoft’s constant changes, unicode came on the scene. to sri lanka’s surprise, a foreigner had submitted a proposal for a standard for sinhala in unicode.
    6. a team from the cintec committee defended the proposed sri lankan standard against (5) above in 1997 and got the initial sinhala unicode proposed by sri lanka accepted in 1998.
    7. several discussions followed with microsoft (with the help of some sri lankans working within) to no avail. sinhala just hadn’t shown up on the world scripts map as yet as far as electronic support was concerned – pure economics. mind you, even indic scripts hadn’t made it yet with all the potential of a huge market.
    8. indians kept taking up issue with microsoft well into the new millenium before they got a hearing.
    9. microsoft’s own language support has only really matured over the past 2-3 years. and obviously they started with support for the economically sensible ones first. their unicode support still has to rely on successive versions of the rendering engine being written/updated – this is one of the reasons you need to download software to see sinhala unicode (you are not just downloading a font, you are infact downloading a display driver too – not to mention a keyboar driver).
    10. incidentally, why one does not need to download thai fonts is because thai support was added to windows with win 2000 or XP already (unlike sinhala). conversely why you don’t need to download sinhala fonts in some sites is because of a font embedding technology which still ‘infects’ your computer with (yet another) proprietary font!
    10. the lk-lug meanwhile has also developed increasingly maturing sinhala unicode support on linux.
    11. incidentally, all references to unicode sinhala refer to the SLS 1134 standard. the confusion about dates is due to the fact that, while the unicode standard was accepted in 1998, the SLS 1134 re-adopted it with some minor changes proposed during the unicode consultations only in 2001 (i.e. SLS 1134:2001). this was further updated with more detail (since some details were not spelt in the original) in 2004 which is the current standard SLS 1134:2004. this is a fairly comprehensive document which spells out in fair detail how the system works. unfortunately the unicode system itself is non-trivial to the layman. it would have been much easier to understand if there was just a contiguous space containing all 642 or 1440 over 2000 or indeed 64,000 (depending on how inefficiently you want to represent sinhala) composite glyph shapes of sinhala.
    12. over a year ago microsoft finally showed signs of being serious about sinhala (aparently owing to a BBC tender for indic language support for its site). since the reason for their interest that time died away, we were still unable to get anything but a homegrown workaround to ensure sinhala unicode support on win 2000 and XP.
    13. more recently, as someone in this thread had pointed out, they seem to be finally serious about getting sinhala into vista.
    14. unfortunately, all is not yet ironed out – be realistic, sinhala is still not as important for microsoft in an economic sense. it is only important for them in a political sense (bcos many countries in the region are embracing open source).
    15. support on linux doesn’t suffer all the drawbacks of having to deal with economic interests of a single company. it is an excellent opportunity to race ahead by empowering ourselves. unfortunately, sri lanka has not put in enough effort to promote FOSS – instead taking a ‘neutral stand’ on it. it is in the interest of coutries like ours to push the FOSS agenda so that we no longer have to rely on big business in other countries to determine our fate.

    though i don’t wish to ‘throw mud’ at anyone, i think i also need to put this thread in context with respect to donal G:

    1. donald G was someone who i first met online over 2 years ago.
    2. i listened to his ‘solution’ just as did some others like gihan D
    3. like some of you on this thread, i thought he needed to be enlightened – after all he knew and cared a lot for how the printed word looked (being from that industry), but had no real grasp of the complexities of unicode.
    4. like several of you i and gihan did try to show him how the system works (and how it is adopted by the whole world – not only for representing language as text, but also by programming languages, XML, databases, the works).
    5. while initially he didn’t realize the pervasiveness of unicode (and consequently the futility of fighting it), later he came to realize it and in this thread he distances himself from that stand. aparently he is now against sinhala unicode (SLS 1134) rather than unicode per se.
    6. this is why i now believe that he actually understands quite a bit (though not fully the intricacies involved).
    7. may take on his reason for ‘pretending to not understand’ is (a) he had spent some 2 years in japan figuring out his so called sinhala representation – making the fatal mistake of aligning it with the japanese (or CJK) – there’s much more granularity in indic languages such as sinhala and (b) based on this he had a mistaken notion that he would be able to take out a patent for his ‘scheme’.
    8. two years ago, he mentioned about his patent and his impending ‘proof’ by implementing his ‘scheme’. in this thread i find he claims he needs 12-18 months of work (if he gets the funds) to implement it.
    9. i was present at the SLSI meeting where donald G’s objections were heard. it was almost frustrating that the chairman (mr. rohan wijeratne) gave him such a long audience. he was very tolerant. at the end of the meeting all the printing association supporters who he brought were satisfied that sinhala unicode was the way to go – but not donald. i know some of them from the industry, and they are no more with him on this.
    10. mr. ahangama is the only other person to bring a serious objection to sinhala unicode, but i find one can discuss openly with him. he may not yet be convinced (by the look of his posts on this thread) but i hope the technical explainations given by people will convince him. like him, a casual user like me would rather prefer to type latin characters and get a simple transliteration scheme to output the sinhala…
    11. with donald it is different. after gihan and i argued sincerely trying to convince him, various others tried too. while i told them my experience, i never discouraged them from trying. anuradha, several others at lk-lug, several harsha’s and now harshula. the end result is the same. misquoting, misrepresenting and misleading others.
    12. for this reason, i wouldn’t be surprised if no one takes him on in a TV debate – unless we can find someone who has not been on the job of convincing donald already! this is not because they’d be afraid of his argument, but because all of them without exception have come to the conclusion that he is no longer sincere in his motive.

    finally with respect to the practicality of sinhala unicode:

    1. at the SLSI meeting referred to above, the lakehouse folk (arguably one of the biggest consumers of this technology) confirmed that they have been working with sinhala unicode and had no problems of the sort brought up by donald.
    2. wasantha deshapriya has outlined some of the practical uses ICTA has put sinhala unicode to use to
    3. we at the university of colombo (ucsc) are developing the collation algorithm, text corpus, OCR, TTS etc using sinhala unicode (see http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/)
    4. we will be the first to admit that microsoft support for sinhala unicode is not perfect yet. nor is linux support quite there. the point is that unicode support IS there on both these platforms and all other technologies.
    5. rest assured, the unicode consortiums policy will *never* allow for donalds proposed scheme of representing all individual composite glyph patterns (ligatures) for sinhala since all indic languages (as all european ones) are allocated just a single code page (with only CJK languages allocated more owing to their pictogram nature).

    it is time for donald to honestly admit that his interest is no longer in language but in a patent or compensating for what he must perceive as a waste of 2 years of work designing his scheme in japan.

    if you truly love the sinhala language and want to help its progress in the e-world, you need to redirect your immense energies and that of others in this thread to get on with the job…

    if not, at least let us know what more ‘proof’ you need to do so: there are websites, wordprocessed documents, spreadsheets, databases, OCR, TTS, mobile apps…

    please do not consider this a flame. i have tried to be as impartial as i can be given the immense amount of harm caused by donald’s campaign of misinformation.

    regards,

    ruvan.

    ps: i must admit in a quircky kind of way, i admire your ability to still oppose this against all the evidence! it is a rare skill – unfortunately put to destructive use.

  198. Thank you, Dr. Ruwan Weerasinghe for your lengthy and logical explanation, and we appreciate the step taken by you to respond here.

    I am only a PC user, and no expert at all. As I have told so many times before users like me do not mind whether the method used is Unicode, Donaldcode or Harsulacode as long as I can use Sinhala in PC environment. Unfortunately, the fact is, till today I cannot. None of the major OSes still support Sinhala as a standard. I have no idea how long I have to wait.

    So the question is not whether Unicode is complete or not but how we get Sinhala to the comupter environment asap.

    I largely agree with Harsha and Dr. Weerasinghe, that there is no point arguing whether Unicode is correct or not. Only one person has that issue. (Not counting JC)

    On the other hand, the COMMON issue which we ALL face is why the major OSes still do not support Sinhala. (Who cares it is Unicode or Donaldcode?)

    That is why we need ICTA. They should talk to all big guys and see that Sinhala gets into the computers asap. Perhaps the debate will be more meaningful if we can ask the questions, why it has not happened so far and when it will happen.

  199. A debate in the open?!

    Ruvan, you said almost everything that needs to be said. Donald, with all due respect, Sir, I have to agree with Ruvan that you are influenced by the CJK ideographic scripts. The Japanese wear their own blinkers about this thing. However, contrary to what most people say here and elsewhere, you CAN make a font that is also UNICODE COMPLIANT adhering to the principle that every character should have its own glyph — 1820 plus as you say. It would be just a tad heavy, but still practical.

    Sinhala is correctly considered as one of several Unicode scripts that belong to the Indic group of languages. I agree with the Unicode technology. Without Unicode standards, we cannot make a font for Sinhala that shows all the characters that Mr. Gaminitilleke’s book shows. Again, Donald, thank you for sending it to me. It is gratefully appreciated. That book should be with every font maker.

    I plead with much humility for you all wonderful people to download the file at the following location (I replaced the right-leaning slashes with pipe character to avoid the message lopping off at slashes. So, please replace them with the slashes when typing in the address bar):
    http:||www.unicode.org|versions|Unicode4.0.0|ch09.pdf
    Once downloaded, read the advice Unicode gives Tamil and Malayalam font makers. It does not have much for Sinhalese because as we know, we have been an enthusiastic bunch. That’s okay. Our sister scripts are the Dravidian ones. (Remember we got it from Pallava’s?).

    Donald’s kayanu-bænði-muurdhaja-sayanna is shown in it. Not only it, it also shows how to make the ‘kxo’ (that is romanized Sinhala. Why should I avoid it. I have great respect for the two and half years of work gone into it. x=muurdhaja-sayanna).

    If we followed the advice that Unicode is taking such pains to describe, this is what should happen:

    I type kxo (or its equivalent on a Sinhala-only keyboard), and then the following shows up on the screen:
    kombuva-kayanu-bænði-muurdhaja-sayanna-ælapilla
    Then I say Oops and backspace once. The display changes to:
    kayanu-bænði-muurdhaja-sayanna (=kx).
    Notice that I did not type kombuva at the beginning. The font did it for me automatically. Unicode says this in so many places. This is why Unicode is repeating the word ORTHOGRAPHY. The font has the intelligence to make display the characters the way it ought to be written.

    I think we were too attached to the Wijesekera keyboard and did not seriously look at the INPUT method. The fault with the Wije keyboard is that it contradicts the Unicode standard and gives marks (e.g. kombuva), the same status as base characters. So we proudly used all those esoteric devices like ZWJ. (Make Pali fonts separately). I watched the Linux developer group talking these things till they started insulting each other. Then I proposed them to use romanized Sinhala to insulate the nice language from the rest of the world. I think they threw me out. Sinhala Unicode group too did the same to me, but worse to Donald.

    As Sinhalese, we should learn to listen to criticism and even gobbledygook for the sake of civility and openness in discussion AND especially because we are talking destiny for the Sinhalese. If you guys are going to have a discussion, (I dread a debate), please include the Sinhala users and Pali users too. Maybe tape ahead. The composition of the panel should be like the wages Boards: Employers and employees (I am talking what I knew 30 years back, sorry for being such a fossil). In this case, the big wigs that talk in English about Sinhala and the down trodden Sinhala-only unfortunates.

    May I also remind you that there are two user groups (did we ever consider user groups) that you did not take into consideration: students studying abroad and Pali users world over who often call Sinhala script the Pali language.

    In the meanwhile, I’ll try to make a font that follows Unicode and fits on the Latin-1 pages.

  200. Hey, Dharma!

    Nice to hear from you.

    You know, I think I can do a font for you that will at least work in Windows XP without any extra installations. No Sinhala keyboard, no that service pack, this service pack. Maybe you’d have to extend the keyboard to European style — no big deal. maybe you need to pay me (though far less than what you would be required to pay Microsoft to use the font developed by our guys.)

    I think you won’t reply.

  201. Dear Ruwan

    Quote”a cintec committee comprising of sinhala scholars of various persuations sat down to set some standards for terminology” unquote

    Please read the article by “Computer imbroglio in keeping with Sinhala language
    by Aelian de Silva” it is on web on pdf format at http://www.akuru.org

    Quote”since most work was done on microsoft operating systems which kept changing drastically their input and rendering methods (from dos to win 3.x to win 95…).” unquote

    This was happenening all over the world but you were not aware of typology and typography of Sinhala. All you know was a Sinhala typewriter and could not think byond this instrument.
    This was the case for all indic languages.
    Quote
    gihan did try to show him how the system works
    Unquote

    This happend at the ICTA in the presence of Mr Manju Hatthotuwa and the President of Sri Lanka Association of PRinters. Dr Gihan got very angry and walked away from the meeting.This was a very undiplomatic way of expression. Mr Manju will confirm this incident.

    Quote
    sinhala unicode (SLS 1134) rather than unicode
    Unquote

    Unfortunately I cannot paste images into this site. Please check the unicode chart for Sinhala and SLSI 1134 chart for Sinhala

    Quote
    sinhala just hadn’t shown up on the world scripts map as yet as far as electronic support was concerned – pure economics.
    Unquote

    No economics behind SInhala but the main problem was — Sri Lanka had no National Standard for Sinhala characters. Nobody ever knew how many sinhala characters were in sinhala hodiya.

    Quote
    i argued sincerely trying to convince him,
    Unquote

    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb

    “”Some code points in UCS have been assigned to combining characters. These are similar to the non-spacing accent keys on a typewriter.””

    I can understand the typewriter technology but Computer is not a typewriter

    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb

    Combining characters follow the character which they modify. For example, the German umlaut character Ä (“Latin capital letter A with diaeresis”) can either be represented by the precomposed UCS code U 00C4, or alternatively by the combination of a normal “Latin capital letter A” followed by a “combining diaeresis”: U 0041 U 0308.

    Donalds Comment:

    What ever the combination is used the German umlaut character Ä is listed in unicode as one character. Defined as ISO 10646 Table 2 row 00 Latin -1 Supplement
    DEC 196 as = latin capital letter A with diaeresis

    Like wise you have to specify all Sinhala characters in the unicode = SLSI

    You have given the combination but you have not given the end location of “DU” …..etc etc

    Because the end location is not given various font makers keep the “DU” in different locations thus the data is not compatible. We are using a computer not a typewriter.

    All this is beacuae you have the typewriter concept within you and cannot think byond

    Quote
    – making the fatal mistake of aligning it with the japanese (or CJK) –
    unquote

    You mean to say that Sri Lanka is a develop country with a higher GNP and GDP that of Japan China or Korea. Also you think that Sri Lankas’ computer literacy is higher than that of Japan China or Korea. They have solved this problem having thousand of characters in thier language.

    This is because thay had proper educated people who had national feelings and made a proper National standard of thier own languages without bending the heads to UNICODE.

    Quote
    for sinhala since all indic languages (as all european ones) are allocated just a single code page
    unquote

    This where you went wrong

    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#comb

    Has UCS been adopted as a national standard?

    Yes, a number of countries have published national adoptions of ISO 10646, sometimes after adding additional annexes with cross-references to older national standards, implementation guidelines, and specifications of various national implementation subsets:

    * China: GB 13000.1-93
    * Japan: JIS X 0221-1:2001
    * Korea: KS X 1005-1:1995 (includes ISO 10646-1:1993 amendments 1-7)
    * Vietnam: TCVN 6909:2001
    (This “16-bit Coded Vietnamese Character Set” is a small UCS subset and to be implemented for data interchange with and within government agencies as of 2002-07-01.)
    * Iran: ISIRI 6219:2002, Information Technology — Persian Information Interchange and Display Mechanism, using Unicode. (This is not a version or subset of ISO 10646, but a separate document that provides additional national guidance and clarification on handling the Persian language and the Arabic script in Unicode.)

    Quote
    donald to honestly admit that his interest is no longer in language but in a patent
    unquote

    Why worry about my patent if you have a proper system.

    Since there are enough problems in your system (SLSI1134 =r Sinhala unicode)

    I am the only person giving a solution to these problems.

    The Intellectial Property Act No 36 of 2003, Part IV Chaper XI

    Definitions
    “invention” means an idea of an inventor which permits in practice the solution to a specific problem in the field of Technology”

    By default without any negative writings my patent should have being approved but yet pending.

    Remember I have the 100% copyrights over my publication ISBN 955-98975-0-0 and its industrial acceptibility.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  202. JC,

    As a typical Sri Lankan I prefer the software in my PC to come free of charge.:-)

    But, yes, I do not paying a reasonable amount if you can provide me a solution that I can use and that will make it possible for me to communicate with others, they too not facing the hassle of downloading and installing. Let me study your previous posts and come back to you.

    But not the other hand I feel cheated. (No, not by you but by the government of Sri Lanka.) Under the e-Sri Lanka programme the country has spent handsomely to do whatever you say you can do for me now. The amount spent can by no means be small. I am sure at least half a million to one million dollars or even more would have been spent on it for all these years. (I know several people from ICTA and UCSC worked on it.) All these were our money. The money of the public. We did not pay them to come up with another fonts set (which they have done so far) but to make standards and put Sinhala into major OSes.

    So after spending so much by the country, don’t you think it would be fair for me to expect Sinhala free of charge in my PC rather than paying another developer?

  203. Quote
    The amount spent can by no means be small. I am sure at least half a million to one million dollars or even more would have been spent on it
    unquote

    You are correct. After Sri Lanka spending all this they were unable to give a proper product.
    It is corect for you and the general public to expect correct Sinhala in computer free of charge.
    Who takes the resposibility of the incorrect product!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  204. Dharma,

    Thank you for taking me on. Why I like you to come here more often is because of this:
    You bring out the MOST FUNDAMENTAL questions: Why do we do this at all and whose paying for all this? And you remind that it is because you want to type Sinhala with the least hassle.

    Then you say you have already paid too much and someone else (JC) fixes the problem but you don’t want to pay him.

    Here’s a story:
    My car developed a severe oil leak. So I took it to the garage. The garage owner told that they have to lift off the engine and replace the gaskets. The price was as much the price of the car. After three weeks in the garage, I paid and took the car back. The leak remained and the garage owner gave technical reasons why it still leaks (part of it being the station wagon is 11 years old). I went to another garage. That mechanic put it up the hoist, showed me the leaking oil and said that I had to take one of the wheels off and replace some parts there because the oil is shooting from the side into the engine and politely hinted that the other garage did not diagnose correctly. Back home, I got my girl to help me figure out where the oil comes out of. So, I got in the car and and pumped the pedals and turned the steering wheel etc. while she peeked into the engine. We found that the leak is from the hole developed on a tube that runs automatic steering fluid. Our handy man who had come to do some fixing in the house was looking on and offered to help. Though not not a mechanic, he read the repair manual, got dirty all over and fixed the promblem in 45 minutes. By now I had paid out a lot of money and was angry. Did I pay the handy man too?

    Ok. Let’s get back to business and bargain.
    Here’s the description of the font:

    ===================
    The font is Sinhala script, of course.
    Input is through US-International keyboard layout. (It’s what European do. It is set up in the Control Panel — no loading of software)
    It is Unicode compliant:
    Partly that means, when you type b followed by a, it shows bayanna. In other words, you type the way you speak. The font displays the way it should be written. Sinhala orthography is hard to program. it will come in stages. But the first version would be pretty much okay.

    Installation: You copy the file into the Fonts directory. I’ll send a batch file that automates it too, if you want — Do’t get too carried away. Think of the mighty green bucks that I charge, like Microsoft. (Major difference: I am a Sinhalese living abroad and wear the sarong whenever possible. Similarity: We both are American businesses, I can speak English AND Sinhala, not much Sanskrit that you guys write nowadays).
    The characters are not the greatest looking but would be better than most you see. I’ll improve it as I get paid. You get upgrades free (Microsoft charges for upgrades.)

    Condition: You pay for each copy of the font file. (your friend pays for their copy). Every user should register with me. And I’ll sue anyone that is caught using it without registering it with me. (US is serious about software piracy. I am on the same boat with Microsoft on this.)

    Here’s a hint: Think like a business person. The Sinhalese had it for thousands of years until the British broke its bones. Recall that Anuradhapura was named after a merchant, not some coconut politician (Coconut means white inside, brown outside). So, if you think my efforts are worth money, then form a company over there to be the sole distributor (Sri lanka allows monopolies, if I am correct). Then loby the government to buy from us (you and me) than upgrading all those government owned computers to Windows Vista, whatever it is going to be called when out. Get the other developers like Microimage as your partners. They are pretty reasonable and intelligent.
    ===================

    So, the bottom line:
    How much would you pay for one copy of Sinhala font that will run natively on Windows XP that is also Unicode compliant? let’s negotiate. If you want to privately discuss, write to me at jc@LANandWAN.com.

  205. Are you kidding?

    Half a million to one million Us$ was spend on this?

    No doubt both sons of the Agency’s loku mahattaya are studying in US!

  206. þoppi velenða,

    I am not kidding. You are talking about money. I am talking serious work and business. Come out of hiding. Are you scared? Of whom, may I ask?

  207. þoppi,

    This thing about sending rich Sri Lankas to study in the US.

    It is amazing the amout of money they have. They do things that upper-middle-class Americans cannot dream of. For instance, they get apartments for the children to go to school from and pay out-of-state tuition rates for college. Semthing like $60,000 a year. I am just lucky that my daughter became a National Merit Scholarship finalist. A University offrered full tuition and boarding for her. I was seriously thinking of finding a high-powered job in Sri Lanka, just to be able to pay for her college. I know those are cushy jobs too. You just sit and talk big.

  208. As far as I understand, this whole Sinhala in computers issue has become a big political game over the years.

    For all those years, Prof. Sam has been smartly exploiting this to achieve his own personal goals. He uses this as a ‘hingannage thuwalaya’.

    The day beggar finds his wound is healed, he knows his means of income is over.

    Similarly Prof. Sam knows the day Sinhala is introduce in the major OSes, he does not have a project, and he loses his means of (a) income and (b) power. So he tries his best to delay introducing a Sinhala standard.

    Till Sinhala is introduced in the major OSes, Prof. Sam can always make his political masters happy by making offerings in piecemeal. (As we all know his political master knows nothing about this issue and to him Unicode is perhaps the name of a fancy restaurant in Hambantota. So he does not care.)

    So Prof. Sam makes his offerings time to time and little by little. Not everything at once. One day he introduces SMS in Sinhala. One day he introduces a key board in Sinhala. One day he introduces Sinhala e-mail etc. We see this from state television, and these simple things are presented as great achievements. In reality. we know these are nothing but tamashas. For example we had a standard Sinhala key board for at least ten years. It is not something one developed based on Mahinda Chinthana.

    Anyway, Prof. Sam’s political master is happy with this game because it looks like he actually does some work, Prof. Sam is happy because this gives him the two things he ever wants in life; namely (a) money and (b) power. State television is happy because they get a story to run. ICTA is happy because it has a story to publish in its news letter.

    The only party who are not happy is the users, who are continued to be cheated by Prof. Sam and clan.

    For how long Prof. Sam continues to wash rice for his grand mother like this?

  209. Dear Harsha

    Quote
    “So even hypothetically if donald is right do you’ll think all these players will agree to implement his method? Then what will happen to O/S support to all the applicaitons which are supposed to emerge with Sinhala?”
    Unqote

    I was trying to find a answer for this.
    At last I found the answer.
    I found it in the following book
    You can purchase it at “Gandara”
    I thank Mr Dian Gomes for introducing such valuble book to Sri Lanka.

    The name of the book is

    ” Who Moved My Cheese” by Dr Spencer Johnson

    also you can visit
    http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  210. It takes a long time for this blog to download now. Can the Admin pepare the blog to access date/week wise from now on.

  211. Donald,
    Great find. I think most of us need this training, specially those who are clinging to the products that they made with half-baked ideas.

    Dharma,
    Keep wishing for a free freedom — it isn’t there. Stop blaming people and act!

  212. Thanks JC for the comment

    After the “Chesse” the blog got stagnant was wondering that now everybody got scared that their “Cheese” has been moved are now running in the maze to find more better “Cheese”

    In another thread Tamil Language has just commenced.
    For Sinhala there is an incomplete set but these guys never did anything for Tamil Language.
    I was the only person publicly voiced equal usage of both languages Sinhala and Tamil using a computer. Both languages do have a problems when using a computer.

    I have the Solution but these people are scared even to give it a try because their “Chesse” will get moved.

    Donald Gamnitillake
    Colombo

  213. JC,

    [quote]

    Dharma,
    Keep wishing for a free freedom — it isn’t there. Stop blaming people and act!

    [unquote]

    Who wants free lunches? At least I do not. All I said was we have spent so much for this so called standards development and it is gross ridiculous if someone suggests that I still have to pay for using Sinhala in my computer.

    Why should I need to pay twice (once to Sri Lanka government in tax and then to you) for the simple task of using Sinhala in my computer?

    Please enlighten me what actions should I take.

  214. Dharma,

    OK. You want a font that works and free to use? Write to me. I will register you as a tester. Anybody here wants to be a tester may also do the same.

    My efforts are since 2002. I am not a Government agency that has unlimited resources. I buy software with my humble earnings. When I devote time for my native country and language, I rob from my livelihood. In this project, I am the Business Decision maker, the Business Negotiator (with Microsoft and Unicode), Technical Expert, Language Researcher, Impact and Feasibility Study provider, System Analyst, Native Language user, Alternative System (Sinhala Unicode) Investigator, Consultant, Programmer, Font Designer, Typography Student, Typographer etc. and the Risk taker. It is my sleep I sacrifice. I neglect my family. I neglect my clients. No one pays compensation to me.

    I lived in Lanka for 37 years and perfectly understand the mentality of socialism — expect the government to provide and then blame it for failure.

    You are trapped in the notion that Unicode means Sinhala Unicode page. That is only a concept by Unicode Inc. that furthers the business interests of it’s members and especially the directors. They are not forcing you to accept their idea. They only think that it is a good idea. For me, it is NOT a good idea. The reason is that it isolates Sinhala from the inner circle of Unicode users. Chinese, Arabic and even other Indic languages can afford to use their own Unicode pages because they have large user bases that can provide a useful network of communication — independent internets. Small countries like us should not adopt isolated Code pages. (None of the European nations did. Fraktur and Gaelic are different scripts but are still based on the first two Unicode code pages.) Choosing a code page is OUR choice — individuals as well as the government. Making fonts is our responsibility too. This decision is too grave to be entrusted to a handful of bureaucrats. It’s people’s work. They own and use the language.

    Here is a quote by a pioneering mathematician and linguist that is watching my progress (it was obviously an email message with some spelling/language errors):

    “In the years up to say, 1960, one studying science at a university would also study latin and prehaps greek, because much of the older stuff was written in these languages. Newton wrote as much in Latin as English, and indeed, the notion of papers written in English, or french or german, was unheard of. Still, times have change[d], and because the english, and later americans, took an early lead in technology, much of the rest of the world came to use these languages [English versions].

    India was for a while colonised by the british, and the retention of english there as an official language, is more a case of not trying to put either of a dravidian or h[i]ndu language over the other, and so they created this foreign language as a “lingua franca”.

    It’s the same in europe, too. Much more is written in english, even for germans in germany, than in german. It is more because english has a larger vocabulary, and much of the language stuff has been nutted out. English is the new Latin, in this regard.”

    We cannot isolate the Sinhala natives from the rest of he world because of a script. While preserving Sinhala, they need to know English too. Basing the Sinhala script on roman character set would facilitate learning of English by exposure. We have found that over the past years English is only the domain of the elite. I know it is a language that can be learned by self study and effort. That’s how I learned it when I (along with others in my 8th grade class) was force promoted to an English-only GCE class. Free access to the Internet coupled with Sinhala based on first two Unicode pages is what I think would hold the Sinhala user withing the greater community of the Internet.

  215. The discussion can continue in a new thread. The current thread is taking too long to load for many people because of the length, hence it is being closed.

    Please click on link below to view or contribute to the discussion on Standardizing Sinhala for IT applications.