With the introduction of microcomputers in the early eighties,
Sri Lanka too embarked on the use of computers with local
language input and output. The University of Colombo developed a
Sinhala screen output for television displays and went on to
provide election result displays in the three languages Sinhala,
Tamil and English within a few years. However, the requirement
for a standard code was identified and steps were taken by the
Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka
(CINTEC) to establish a committee for the use of Sinhala & Tamil
in Computer Technology in 1985, soon after its inception. This
committee quite correctly took steps to meet the immediate need
to agree on an acceptable Sinhala alphabet and an alphabetical
order. Thus this committee joined with a committee appointed by
the Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority of Sri Lanka
(NARESA) to form the Committee on Adaptation of National
Languages in IT (CANLIT), which agreed on a unique Sinhala
alphabet and alphabetical ord