Field Notes · 8 Mar 2026
Dual-language documentation without double maintenance hell
English and Traditional Chinese developer docs can coexist — if you decide which language leads each topic and how translation updates flow.
Many Taipei engineering teams publish in English for external developers and Traditional Chinese for internal procedures. Without rules, both sets drift.
Decide the lead language per surface
Public API references often lead in English. Internal incident runbooks may lead in Traditional Chinese. State that choice on the section landing page.
Update flow
Require the lead language to change first, then schedule translation. Mark translated pages with the source revision date so readers can see staleness. Perfect simultaneous updates are rare; honest lag is better than silent divergence.