datatracker/ietf/templates/release/about.html

{# Copyright The IETF Trust 2015-2022, All Rights Reserved #}
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% load origin %}
{% block title %}About the Datatracker{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
    {% origin %}
    <h1>About the IETF Datatracker</h1>
    <p>
        The IETF Datatracker is the primary day-to-day front-end to the IETF database for people
        who work on IETF standards.  It contains data about the documents, working groups,
        meetings, agendas, minutes, presentations, and more, of the IETF.
        The primary public face of the IETF is at
        <a href="https://www.ietf.org/">www.ietf.org</a>.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Datatracker is an open-source project, using <a href="https://github.com/ietf-tools/datatracker">GitHub</a>.
    </p>
    <p>
      There are <a href="{% url 'releaseabout' %}">release notes</a> available since version 2.00.
    </p>
    <p>
        Below you'll find a brief history of the datatracker development, in terms of the big
        moments.  For the nitty-gritty week-to-week code changes, please check the release
        notes or the commit log.
    </p>
    <h2>Version 7.0.0: Django 2</h2>
    <h2>Version 6.0.0: Facelift using Bootstrap3</h2>
    <p>
        During more than a year, from July 2013 to late 2014, <i>Lars Eggert</i> worked intensively
        on a major facelift to the datatracker, porting the GUI to Bootstrap.  The work
        took 287 separate commits, and comprised changes to 1016 different files.
    </p>
    <p>
        This work has turned the IETF Datatracker website into a responsive website which
        support use on a much larger variety of devices, from small mobile devices to desktops.
    </p>
    <p>
        The work relies heavily on the capabilities of
        <a href="https://getbootstrap.com">Bootstrap</a>,
        and continues to use the
        <a href="https://www.djangoproject.org/">Django</a>
        framework which the datatracker has been build on since
        <a href="/release/2.00/">version 2.00</a>.
        It also uses icons from
        <a href="https://fontawesome.com/">FontAwesome</a>,
        and functions from
        <a href="https://django-bootstrap3.readthedocs.org/">django-bootstrap3</a>.
    </p>
    <p>
        Additional page conversion work was performed by <i>Ole Laursen</i>, with
        final style tweaks, bug-fixes and adaptations
        by <i>Henrik Levkowetz</i>, giving it a distinct
        <a href="https://www.colourlovers.com/palette/3702908/Key_West_Sunset">colour palette</a>
        (with the addition of complementing green and red colours for success and error indications),
        and a selection of fonts from
        <a href="https://www.paratype.com/public/">ParaType</a>
        (<a href="https://www.identifont.com/show?2G32">PT Serif</a>
        for body text,
        <a href="https://www.identifont.com/show?2G2G">PT Sans Caption</a>
        for headers,
        <a href="https://www.identifont.com/show?2G2F">PT Sans</a>
        for menus,
        and PT Mono for monospaced documents).  (Even if PT Sans Caption was
        created as a 'Caption' (6-8pt)
        <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font#Optical_size">optical size</a>
        font to go with PT Sans, it works well for headers when paired with PT Serif.)
    </p>
    <h2>Version 5.0.0: Shim Removal</h2>
    <p>
        At this point, the views and templates were completely adapted to the new models introduced at 4.0.0
    </p>
    <h2>Version 4.00: New Database Schema</h2>
    <p>
        This release was a complete redesign of the underlying Django models. It introduced a set
        of facades, referred to as a "Shim Layer", which allowed the refactor to focus only on the
        models, leaving the views and templates for later adaptation.
    </p>
    <h2>Version 3.00: Django Port of the IESG Datatracker Pages</h2>
    <p>
        This release added the IESG only portions of the previous IESG tracker to the public Datatracker.
    </p>
    <h2>Version 2.00: Django Port of the Public Datatracker Pages</h2>
    <p>
        This release was a complete re-write of the CGI/Perl-based IESG datatracker
        in Python, using the Django framework.  It comprised about 8000 lines of
        Python code, and 6000 lines of template code.  The work was done as a
        skunkworks project by Bill Fenner and Henrik Levkowetz from mid-April
        to mid-May 2007, and continued as an official project from then on.  The
        aim was to eliminate numerous SQL injection insecurities in the current
        code, and also provide a better framework on which to build future enhancements.
        During the most intensive period, Bill and Henrik worked 10 hours per day
        to get all public pages ported and released.  The release was deployed
        in the early hours of 28 June 2007, and nobody noticed the change :-))
    </p>
    <h2>Version 1.0: Initial Perl/MySQL database and web-pages</h2>
    <p>
        The first version of the idtracker was commissioned by the IESG under <i>Harald
        Alvestrand</i> in 2001, and the IESG started using it at the beginning of 2002.  It was
        written by <i>Michael Lee</i> in Perl, with direct SQL statements.  It provided a
        major improvement in visibility of the progress of drafts by the IESG.
        The first
        <a href="https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/55/slides/plenary-6/plenary-6.ppt">
        public presentation
        </a>
        of it and its capabilities was made 2002-11-20
        in Atlanta by Thomas Narten.
    </p>
{% endblock %}