[snip]
Apologies, I should have mentioned this. The feature is still there: hold down Alt whilst dragging something and it will snap to the grid offset it had at the start of the drag.
The option which disappeared was to make this feature the default. I think the general feeling was that the option was a bit obscure. If you feel differently, say so, and I'll put it back in.
I'm sure there are a ton of opinions on what should consitute "proper" snapping behavior, but I've really grown to like Illustrator's "only snap "nodes always snap to the grid" functionality. I only care that the bounding box _around the nodes_ in a complex shap snaps. I have no real artistic skill-- I only use inkscape for technical diagrams, and it's nice to have everything (all lines, points, etc) line up this well.
The "snap objects to the current grid offset" was the closest I could get to this sort of functionality, and I had started relying heavily on it when moving all manner of objects. In many ways, it made things more intuitive than illustrator, because I could tweak text to be (say) 2 points above the line and then it would always stay 2 pts above any grid line.
I just -really really- don't care for snap-to-stroke. You guys have done a wonderful job of making these various types of snapping optional. As soon as this settles down, I'm going to write a "Snapping like Illustrator & Other CAD programs" section in the wiki.
Thanks again for all the effort! ...Eric