One of the features added to the recently released WordPress 3.7 was support for language packs. “WordPress 3.7 adds support for automatically installing the right language files and keeping them up to date, a boon for the many millions who use WordPress in a language other than English.” While support has been added to core, there is still a lot of work to be done to properly have this feature implemented to the WordPress.org website.
Otto has published an excellent guide for plugin and theme developers that explains what needs to be done to take full advantage of language packs.
So go forth, plugin and theme authors. Start fixing up that code. Many of you may have nothing to fix. Some of you may just need a header change. But it’s worth giving it a once over anyway. It certainly would be very nice if, as the new features begin to be added to WordPress.org, then your code was all ready and set to take immediate advantage of it, wouldn’t it? – Otto