What's new in 1.6.3:

Mainly several important bug fixes:
   rubberbanding of SMD rat lines
   netlist comparison under certain conditions
   another division by zero problem
   grid drawing
   various solder-side viewing problems
   movement of line and polygon points to grid points
Some TI analog ICs added to the libraries (courtesy of Eric Huiban)
A tcl script (tools directory) to convert Tango format netlists to pcb format (courtesy of Ingo Cyliax)
Improvements to how the location of DRC errors are reported. (Suggested by Ingo Cyliax)
Changes to the "Sizes" menu, file formats, and resources to support
routing styles. Auto-creation of vias when switching layers during line
creation.  (Suggestions by Borge Strand)
Pin numbers are now strings so that alpha-numeric pin numbering is possible. (Suggested by Doug Fortune)

What's new in 1.6.2Beta:

Bug fixes and some library enhancements.  Thomas Olson added some quad
flat-pack definitions to the libraries and fixed up the silkscreen-crossing
pads problem of the PLCC definitions.  The division by zero in the crosshair
drawing is fixed, and excess points are removed from polygons now, making
their editing more logical.  A few other small bugs are fixed.

What's new in 1.6.1Beta:

Mostly bug fixes - many relating to viewing from the solder side, plus
an infinite loop when removing selected vias, and a few other things.
New features: Connection finding is now undoable. There is a new action
"Atomic" that allows multi-action resource bindings to become a single action
as far as undo is concerned.  Also a crude design rule checker that ensures
minimum spacing rules and thicknesses are met. Type ":DRC()" to check your layout
for design rule errors.

What's new in 1.6.BETA:

Mainly automatic calculation of what areas of the screen
need redrawing, so that the display should be WYSIWYG at all times.
Various bug fixes, and some new features: support for drawing copper
arcs (similar to lines), a line insert mode that adds two clipped
lines at once to get from the start point to the crosshair
without a lot of effort, support for pure mounting holes has
been added and pins can be round or octagonal and display that way
on the screen. Finally a means to convert lines and vias in a
buffer into an element definition was added.  The manual
has been updated to reflect the changes.

There are also some changes to the order of determining what item
to act on under the crosshair. The new order is more intuitive 
in that it's most likely to select what you're visually pointing to.
In addition, the search range is affected by the zoom, so you need
to be more acurately positioned when your zoomed in close, and less
so when zoomed out.  Be aware that I also changed the standard pin
diameter and drill hole of DIL parts in library from 50/20 to 60/28.
After all, most standard DIL pins won't fit in a 20 mil hole (Typical
pins are rectangular 0.018 by 0.011).

What's new in 1.5.3.BETA:
Major overhaul of the manual (but still more to do).
A new refcard.
Support for GerberX photo-plotters and NC drill files.
You can zoom in closer provided the layout isn't too large.
You can measure distances on the screen easily with a marker.
The rats nest feature is more highly optimized and doesn't
  require re-loading when you make element changes.
Improved resource file to give you more room to work in
  the layout area, plus some enhanced features to make
  layout less tedious.
Keyboard ability to move things very accurately.
A command line interface to any of the action commands.
Plenty of bug fixes.

Improvements added by Harry Eaton <haceaton@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu>
==========================================================================

- Reports to get information on objects and drilling holes

- a rats nest feature that uses a net list to assist in component
  placement and routing, and that also verifies the final layout.

- support for rubberband mode rotate operations

- added new polygon/pin/via piercing behavior 

- added support for REDOs (if your undo key repeats...) and
  greatly increased the number of things that are undoable

- a RS274X Gerber driver that works with all of the features
  and also generates NC Drill files.

- a lot of smaller features too numerous to mention

- several bugfixes...


Improvements added by Andre M. Hedrick <hedrick@Astro.Dyer.Vanderbilt.Edu>
==========================================================================

- a lot of nice stuff for GERBER plotters 'type' RS-274D and 
  a duplicate effort on an RS-274X type driver, but these don't
  support the latest polygon behavior and so are incomplete and
  not used for the time being.

- and more bugfixes


Many other also contributed a lot of hints, knowledge and experience
to the project. Thanks to all of them...

********* IMPORTANT NOTE **********
If you meet these guys, buy them a pizza, soda, beer or what ever they like

