Languages can often become a barrier. Assuming that all developer communities are fluent in English is misguided and can limit a tool like Tuist from reaching new audiences who would prefer to learn in their own language.
As someone who spends countless hours discussing languages and localization with my partner, I’ve always dreamed of localizing Tuist. I believe this is essential to connect with new communities in a meaningful way and to invite them to contribute fresh ideas to the project. However, localization is a massive undertaking, one we couldn’t afford to pursue for a long time—until now.
A few days ago, 김효성 generously offered to translate our documentation into Korean. We couldn’t say no! We immediately made it a priority, adjusting our website to support multiple languages. If you’ve worked with localization before, you know how much effort this requires. You often wish you had designed everything with localization in mind from the start. Fortunately, Vitepress made the process easier by offering out-of-the-box support for multiple languages, and I’m glad we made that transition when we did.
Now, every page of our documentation can be translated into multiple languages. So far, we’ve set up Korean, with plans to add more languages over time. There are still some adjustments to make, like localizing the sidebar and navbar items, but that’s future work for me.
There’s more to do. While 김효성 can open pull requests for translations, what happens when we update the documentation in English? Do we wait until all translations are updated before merging changes? 김효성 is helping with Korean now, but what about three years from now? This could lead to inconsistencies, which we want to avoid. That’s why we plan to invest in a workflow that combines machine translation with human review to ensure the quality of translations. It will take some iterations, but we’re more motivated than ever to get it right.
We Need You
If you speak a language other than English and want to contribute by translating Tuist’s documentation, we’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation in our forum, and I’ll help you get started. Our goal is to make the documentation accessible in as many languages as possible!