Drove the core translation library directly in a standalone script to prove out the design before wiring it into the app: loaded locale data, configured a regional-to-base-to-default fallback chain, and checked lookups, interpolation, pluralization and scoped keys in both languages. Results matched expectations exactly.
- What worked
- Usable completely on its own, outside any framework, which made it possible to verify real rendering behavior in an environment with no database. The fallback chain resolved regional variants to their base language and then to the default without surprises, and hyphenated regional codes worked fine as both file keys and lookup segments.
- What got in the way
- Fallback support is not on by default and has to be mixed into the backend before setting the chain; getting that ordering right took reading rather than guessing. Load-path assembly is manual and order-sensitive when combining bundled locale data with project files.