There are several separate though related issues here.
1. Fill&Stroke "always on": Sorry but I stand firmly opposed to that. It would be a fundamental disruption for a very marginal gain. If I ever learned anything from Xara, it's this: If you're not sure how to do it, do it on canvas. Therefore, this dialog is not a thing in itself and not some abstract "color editor" (as in Xara); it is a direct view/controller of the selection, tightly bound to the current desktop and its selection. Basically it's the same as the selected style indicator in the statusbar, just expanded. Enabling it to work on some abstract thing ("current color") that you don't SEE on canvas might be fine in itself, but when it interferes with the direct and immediate function of the dialog - watching and changing selection - it's a no go.
As it is now, I know I can trust my Fill&stroke dialog without thinking, on everything it shows me. If I have to _think and decide_ whether it shows me the selection or the current color, every time I glance it, my life will suddenly become so much harder.
2. More ways to set the "last set" style: I have nothing against that, except that in this case, we'll have to rename the specific and descriptive "last set" to more abstract and vague "default". But other than that, yes, we can add "Set default style from object" to right-click menu, and we can even add "Set default" button to Fill&Stroke if it's really needed (even though I think it's quite complex as it is, and I would prefer not to clutter it further). You can file RFEs for these suggestions.
3. Tool behavior: Currently all object-creating tools are broken into two categories: those that use the last-set style and those that use their own fixed style. (You can switch any tool from one category to the other, and you can change that fixed style in the prefs.) Here are the tools that I put in the fixed-style category, with my reasons for doing so. I'm open to discussing these reasons; feel free to vote on moving any tools (in default configuration) from one category to the other.
- Pen and Pencil: Because quite often, current style has "no stroke", but when you draw with these tools you kinda expect to see the stroke that you draw.
- Spiral: Because this is more a stroke thing than a fill thing, so the same reason as with Pen/Pencil applies here.
- Calligraphic: Because it's kinda expected that calligraphic strokes are black :) (This one is probably most ripe for recategorization.)
- Text: Because colored text is much rarer than colored shapes, and because most of the time text overlays shapes and thus has have a different style anyway.
The rest of tools use last-set style.
One thing that just occurred to me is that I can code it to _merge_ the fixed and last-used styles, instead of using just one of them. This way, for example, text will be able to use fixed black color but last-set font and size, which I think will be the most meaningful combination. And for Pen and Pencil, I can merge the fixed black stroke with the last-set fill, thus making these tools behave more like the other shape tools. I think this would make sense, let me know what you think.
As for the "Set default" button in Text&Font dialog, currently it sets the fixed style of the Text tool, but if we switch that tool to using last-set or a combination of fixed and last-set, this button will be redundant and can be removed. (The last-set text style is set automatically even now when you change a text object style, there's no need to code anything additional for that.)
4. Indication of last-set style in the main interface: This is obviously less important than indicating the style of the selection. And for the style of selection, I spent the absolute minimum of real estate in the statusbar. So, I'm not convinced that last-set really deserves to be in the main UI, at least by default. As some removable toolbar button, probably?
P.S. to Charles: I understand your reasons, but I remain convinced that a pop-up dialog is always an admission of defeat and a major usability concern. No matter how well it's explained and how easy it is to get rid of it. (We learned that the hard way with the "Extensions not found" dialog.) So, let's see if in Inkscape we can satisfy everyone without resorting to a dialog :)
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org