- Happens, unfortunately. And people don't notice they are in one when
they try to draw something.

Let's solve the basic case first, then get into the more complex cases later if they need a solution. Ill grant that we will probably not catche them all, but we should catch the simple use cases at the very least.
 

- I can set the fill and stroke gradient for a group just fine (in both
master and 0.92.x), what are the cases in which this doesn't work?

Try this: 
Make some circles
group them
select the group
Apply a fill gradient and a stroke gradient
Click into the group and add another circle.
exit the group and try to apply the gradient again.

Result: the new circle's gradients are unaffected by the group's gradient.

Now, erase all the circles int he group and add another circle in the group.
The gradient no longer affects anything in the group.

See why its better to select objects in the group and set the gradient rather than set the gradient on the entire group? :)

Tested this in 0.92.3, which is the only version of Inkscape which currently works on Ubuntu 18.04 sadly. :(

 
Your suggested change can make some actions take a lot longer, because
one needs to select only objects that have a stroke in a group, to
change their stroke width.

The behaviour doesn't seem any different to me... in the case of selecting the group, all shapes strokes are changed, and the same goes for if you click into the group and hit ctrl+a, then perform the same opp.
Maybe showing me what you mean at the hackfest will shed some light on it for me. :) 
 
>     I just don't expect Inkscape to add a stroke when I change the line
>     width - I understand that it might help new users, but it's also
>     illogical.
>
>
> Currently, if the user adjusts the line width and there's no stroke, the
> value is thrown away entirely. That's absolutely apalling UX. :)

- It doesn't do that for me in 0.92.x, which I routinely use. But the
behavior is new in master - and I just noticed someone removed the
stroke width indicator in the lower left corner! Why was that removed? I
use it so often for quick adjustments.

Using 0.92.3, and the problem exists there. It has for me for as long as I've been using Inkscape.
Steps to reproduce:
start Inkscape
draw a circle
adjust outline to 3mm (breaks, resetting value to 0.000 if stroke paint is set to none)
Set stroke paint to "none"
Inkscape tosses out the 3mm stroke width you just entered, and you can not change it from 0.000 unless you add back stroke paint.

This is how it has been ever since I first started using Inkscape, and persists today.

-C

 

I think these are bugs. This can't be intentional...

Maren


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