Translation Is More Than Swapping Words

A translated page can still leave people staring at an English menu, an unlabeled button, or a feedback panel they cannot understand. A few translated words may look like progress, but they do not make the whole visit work in that language.

Workbench Website now treats language support as a complete set. The project supplies its translated pages and navigation; Website supplies the shared labels and accessibility wording. Each language must produce the same set of page routes. Feedback appears only when its entire panel is available in that language; a partly translated panel is left out rather than dressed up as finished.

For example, a project may offer a complete Danish page while the feedback panel is not yet translated. Readers still get the Danish page, but they do not get a Danish-looking button that opens an English-only panel.

Projects decide what they translate and own the meaning of their words. Website owns the common interface and decides whether its own shared pieces are complete enough to show. This is a small rule with a useful consequence: the language switch promises a coherent page, not a scavenger hunt. Website 0.32.0–0.32.4 adds the released language, feedback, and chronological blog-navigation behavior described here; existing post content is not silently rewritten.

Translated development blogs also keep their older and newer links in date order. Those links take readers to the neighboring posts in the timeline; they are not suggestions that the posts share a subject. Website supplies the visible and screen-reader labels for each supported language, so the controls remain understandable without changing the post itself.