Hi everyone,

My friend u/sdglhm and I recently built a new open-source Sinhala keyboard called Akshara. We wanted to share it with the r/DevLK community!

Why did we build this?

If you use a Mac or an iPhone, you probably know that Apple's default Sinhala Wijesekara keyboard is a bit confusing. It does not follow the standard layout we are used to.

Also, Apple does not have a built-in Phonetic (Singlish) keyboard. Until now, the only software people used for Singlish on Mac was very old. Because it does not work without "Rosetta" (a tool Apple uses to run older apps), it will completely stop working from macOS 28 onwards. In fact, users who tested the macOS 27 Developer Beta already saw this old keyboard break!

On top of that, to type in Singlish on phones, users have to download third-party keyboards. The problem is that many of these apps connect to the internet, which is a big privacy risk when you are typing passwords or personal messages.

What is Akshara?

Akshara fixes these problems. It gives you a proper, standard Wijesekara layout and a fully offline Phonetic (Singlish) keyboard. It is safe, fast, and completely free.

100% Open Source

Because we care about privacy, the whole project is open-source. Anyone can look at our code, fork it, and contribute. If you have an Apple Developer account, you can even download the source code, build the app yourself, and install it directly on your own devices.

What is next? (We need your help!)

We have already started building the Akshara keyboard for Android!

However, we really want to make a Windows version too. If there are any developers here who would like to help us build Akshara for Windows, we would love to invite you to join the project.

Check it out here:

• Website:https://akshara.org.lk/
• Our Subreddit: r/AksharaLK

Let us know what you think, and feel free to join our subreddit!

Your keyboard shouldn't connect to the internet...

Have any idea about how much they pay at lucytech for SSE ?

LinkedIn filled with so many promoted post today in S-Labs. What’s going on there? 🥕

Hello everyone. I'm a 3rd year undergrad with 1+ years of experience in a small startup. I have one more year to get my bachelor's degree.

The company I'm currently working at is my first ever job and I'm currently an Associate Software Engineer. I recieve a 70k gross salary (with deductions about 63k take home). The company is relatively a very small startup, therefore very long hours, lots of work expected from one person.

I've come to realization that it's time for me to move onto a new job since I feel I can do a lot more in a place that would allow me to maximize my potential with a reasonable compensation for it. To my understanding, the work that I do in the company does not come close to the salary I'm receiving. I could be wrong here so please correct me if I'm wrong. To sum up:

- work/life balance is nonexistent (it's always past 10 p.m. when i get home)

- every single day, I work overtime well past the off time (this company does not compensate OT)

- my expenses are higher than my salary (since I also pay for my degree with what I'm earning, with my parents support)

- I'm not exactly faced with a lot of new challenges / exposed to new experiences but this doesn't factor into why I want to resign since I did learn a lot here because of the work I was given

- the work isn't difficult per se but very tiresome. There's no dedicated task management therefore I always end up getting the more tiresome work that includes research as opposed to my teammates without actually having any recognition

- I also do a lot of work that is not relevant to my role, but I guess this is expected from a startup

I feel that I don't have much of a future in this company and that it's time for me to move on since I'm really unhappy in this work environment. However, with the current job market I fear if it's a bad idea to resign.

I'm supposed to work through a notice period of 2 months, and no company would wait 2 months for me realistically due to the volume of candidates these days. I'm sure that I want to resign, but I'm unsure if it's a terrible idea during this time with the market declining. Should I hold on in this position a bit longer? With my current situation is it too risky to switch jobs?

Any advice would be much appreciated since I'm at a loss here. If I'm being truthful, I'm able to go through with this job if my compensation equated to the work that I'm doing. And I have also attempted to negotiate my salary to no avail.

Also I'm aware that working overtime without being compensated is my own doing, but the work culture here is built up in a way that refusing this would be considered "incompetent" and "not dedicated". Therefore my team mates also just go through with this, without ever raising their voice. One coworker who did this was basically rejected from the company, and eventually outsourced, and eventually let go(he was also less performant). I hope that explains why I want to resign immediately.

We are looking for a few people to help test the keyboard before the wider release.

If you use Android and would like to try it out, you can join the Play Store test using the link below:

https://groups.google.com/g/akshara-sinhala-keyboard-testers?pli=1

Try it with your everyday Sinhala typing and let me know if you run into any bugs, awkward layouts, missing characters, prediction issues, or anything else that feels off.

Every bit of feedback will help make Akshara better before launch. 💚

Do not forget to found us at r/AksharaLK and https://akshara.org.lk

I am looking for an experienced IT Operations manager to join a US based IT firm that is available across the globe including Sri Lanka. This is a good opportunity for someone who has been in the industry for around 8-10 years. Please help

Is there anyone here working as a Ruby dev? How's the SL industry for Ruby devs? Any companies using it? I really love it man. Would like to know how the situation is.

Thank you.

Would like to get reviews/advice on the following course (the good, bad and ugly) https://uom.lk/itfac/education/postgraduate/artificial

PS: I have 2 years of work experience as an AI/ ML Engineer and completed bachelors degree where my final year research was specialising in Small language models and agentic AI

Hi everyone,

I'm a local indie developer and I just published my new Android utility app called Clean Space on the Google Play Store.

I built it because I wanted a streamlined storage cleaner that does not rely on heavy background bloat, unnecessary tracking, or aggressive monthly subscription paywalls.

Current Features:

- Clean visual storage breakdowns

- Duplicate photo and blurry picture finder

- Video compressor (shrinks files without losing memories)

- Hidden cache and temporary junk cleaner

Since my Reddit account is brand new, I want to make sure I respect the rules and don't trigger spam filters, so I won't drop the direct link in the main post text.

If you are a fellow developer, tech enthusiast, or just want to support a local project, I would love to get your brutal feedback on the app's performance and UI!

Please drop a comment below if you'd like to test it out, and I'll send over the Google Play link directly. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Has anybody worked / working at Novigi Sri Lanka? How is the environment, culture and stability? Any layoffs?