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