Hello!
I’ve been searching the net for a while…
Is there a page explaining the functionality difference between versions?
I’m just wondering whether it will be worth to switch to 5.1.5 or if it’s better
to stay with 5.1.4. A list sorted by importance of functionality, another section
with bug fixes and changes would be fine.
Thanks
Pascal
The way version numbers work in many projects is major.minor.patch. So 5.1.5 is definitely preferred to 5.1.4. but 6 will be a huge change.
Generally, yes it is best to update to the most recent stable release (so in this case updating to 5.1.5). These releases fix bugs (some of which cause crashes), and the full list of bugs fixed can be found in the changelog here: https://launchpad.net/kicad/5.0/5.1.5.
Functionally, 5.1.5 and 5.1.4 will behave the same. KiCad has a policy not to add new features into the stable releases, so only a new major release gets new features. This is why the change to 6.0 will be larger.
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5.1.5 should not stop anything that you do with 5.1.4 from working. It may make a few details of copper pours and spokes look different due to bug fixes. The newer version should be more correct and consistent
Hello!
Thanks for your replies. Now let me rephrase: is there a page somewhere explaining what was
added / fixed from 5.1.4 to 5.1.5?
And a list of the new features to come in 6.x?
Pascal
Well a search for “kicad 5.1.5” led me to the Launchpad page, which is the same page posted by imcinerney.
As an aside I just updated myself after a few days of checking; my distro finally released a build. I’m a lazy person, if you look up the dictionary entry for lazy you’ll see a picture of me.
roadmap for version 6: http://docs.kicad.org/doxygen/v6_road_map.html
To be clear: this document is not binding. Not everything that will be added is documented in it (small improvements are not really planned in advance, volunteer work can not really be predicted) Not everything in that list will make it for v6 (otherwise v6 will never be released)
There’s also the thread Post-v5 new features and development news which tracks what’s actually new in 5.99 (the development version leading to 6.0). It’s not consistent in how small details it reports. Eeschema and symbol editor will be so radically different that it’s not possible to give very detailed explanation.
Wayne (the project leader) want’s that new features are marked with NEW in git commit messages. It would enable automatic changelog generation. But it depends on how consistently the developers actually use it. And it hasn’t been used in the past.
Another reason for upgrading is to make ‘support’ easier for the volunteers. Especially this site. 
Often times I’ll actually open up Kicad and try something to make sure I know what I’m talking about. I have no desire to maintain multiple versions for this. I usually lag a couple weeks between upgrades for this reason.
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