[Wikipedia-l] Multilanguage portal

Fri Jan 7 19:37:34 UTC 2005

I have (again) hacked together a minimal demo of a multilanguage portal. 
This is not for its good looks but for the function it provides.

To be amazed by it, dial
    http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/portal.php

The page is generated from two local files containing the text and the 
article numbers, respectively. Calling the script with
    http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/portal.php?update
will update the local files from online files, which are hardcoded into 
the script. The article number file, which would normally be generated 
automatically once a day, is at
    http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/num.txt
and the text, to be editable for all, is at
    http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PortalText

Based on these files, and on your browser settings, it will highlight 
what *might* be your favourite language(s). If you set multiple 
languages in your browser, it will highlight them all. If your browser 
sets different weights for these languages, they will appear in 
different shades of grey.

Yes, there is no other layout whatsoever. Don't complain. Web designers 
to the rescue!

Magnus

P.S.: Script is in CVS HEAD; "portal.php" in maintenance