Which language you get, and in what order

When you open an ipe site, it picks your language in the same order every time: the address first, then the choice you saved, then your browser’s language, and English last.

ipe.rest has been available in twelve languages for a while, each on its own page. What changed on the first of November is how you get to the right one. Before, the front page only suggested your browser’s language; now a short rule takes you there, and we mean for the same rule to hold across ipe’s sites.

The four steps

First, the address. If a link says which language it wants, such as lang=ko at the end of an address, that wins, because whoever made the link meant it. The site also saves that choice for next time.

Second, the choice you saved. When you pick a language on the site, it is kept in your own browser under the name ipe_lang. It stays on your device and is never sent to us. If it is there, it is used.

Third, your browser’s language. A browser keeps an ordered list of the languages its owner reads. The site walks down that list and takes the first one it has a page for. A regional form such as ko-KR counts as plain ko.

Fourth, English. If nothing on the list matches, you land on the English page instead of an empty screen. English is a sensible last resort for us because it is one of the two languages we write the originals in, the other being Korean.

Following you from site to site

ipe is more than one site: the main page at ipe.rest, the music site idle, and the games portal play. A language you chose should not be forgotten at the door. So when a link on ipe.rest leads to one of the others, it carries the language you are reading. Where that site has a page in the language, the link goes straight to it. Where it does not, the language travels in the address, and the other site follows the same four steps from there.

What the rule does not do

Every language is still its own plain, static page at its own address, so the rule only decides where you land when you arrive from an address with no language in it, such as ipe.rest or /journal/. Once you are on a language page, you stay there. The jump replaces the address in your history instead of adding to it, so the Back button does not bounce you forward again.

Search engines and link-preview programs are left alone. They are shown the page that lists every language, because that is the page meant for them to read, and it keeps its own canonical address. And if your browser runs no scripts at all, you see that same list and simply pick one.

Why we keep it plain

A language is the first thing a page says to you, and a wrong guess costs a tired person a few seconds they do not have to spare. So the order puts anything stated outright, a link that names a language or a choice you made, ahead of anything guessed, which is your browser’s list. English only fills the gap when nothing else is left.

ipe(); // address, then your choice, then your browser, then English

If a page opens in a language you did not expect, switch it once. The site remembers, and from then on your choice comes before the browser’s guess.