Well, work on the vector brush interface is just about done, so I've tackled another thing I'd like to have (though it's not as significant): proper flowing of text into shapes (chart items in particular).
At first I thought about making dedicated chart shapes, which have an automatic text box at the centre (or defined alignment position).
Then I thought about adding the functionality to existing shapes. Though it still doesn't address the question of non-predefined shapes.
So, the simplest way in the end is to add the functionality to the text toolbar, so that it can be applied to any shape.
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1162/textinterfacelk4.png
Note the grid by the way. Whoever thought of it first (not me, but I don't remember who. It was proposed for some other Inkscape feature though) is genius. You can align the text to: - top-left - top-center - top-right - middle-left - (you get the idea)
Why this proposal?
- because the align grid eliminates the need for calling up the bulky align dialogue all the time when doing chart items. The current flow functionality always starts at the top-left corner, unless I'm missing something.
- because the padding means you can use the actual shape as border, instead of having to manually make a smaller version and stuffing the text into it.
I suppose this would address the following wishlist items:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/171105 https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/171602