But add/remove nodes only makes sense when nodes are displayed and some of them are selected. Which means, only in the node tool.
One thing we need to do to make it faster is enable doubleclicking of an object to go to the corresponding tool. That is, doubleclicking a path goes to node tool, a rect to rect tool etc. I think there was an RFE.
I can definitely see what you're saying and the double click editing for objects sounds great. But, before I file an RFE (if one doesn't exist) about the one thing that makes the system that I'm talking about really work, I figured I'd post to the list for feedback first. It fills in the gap with having the paths/nodes displayed all the time...
Again, from Adobe Illustrator... there is an option that shows you an objects path by highlighting it on mouseover (not selecting in any way, just a highlight to show you what the mouse has attention of). It works really well when you have a bunch of objects overlapping.
(a separate but useful RFE to be made) In AI you can customize color of the above mentioned path highlight, on a per layer basis. For example, layer 1 all paths when selected are highlighted in blue, layer 2 has red highlighted paths, etc. It's purely superficial and just to make workflow a little easier in knowing what layer something is on w/o looking at the layer dialog. I only bring this up because in these pics Layer 1 is the rectangle and Layer 2 is the circle (both with different color highlighted paths).
Unfortunately the actual cursor was not captured in the screenshots, but you can see where it was (there's a little "x" there, which for this purpose is nice due to less obstruction).
All screenshots show the circle as being the selected object and I have my "add node" tool selected as my current tool.
http://www.scislac.com/inkscape/ai-node1.png ai-node1: you can see a little "x" as for where the mouse is located and it even has a label telling you that you are hovering over a path. Click there (on the path), it adds a node.
http://www.scislac.com/inkscape/ai-node2.png ai-node2: you can see a little "x" as for where the mouse is located and it's telling you that you are hovering over an anchor/node. Click there, it tells you that you can't add an anchor (as there's already one there). I only include this out to show that it identifies whether you are hovering over the path or an anchor/node on the path.
http://www.scislac.com/inkscape/ai-node3.png ai-node3: you can see a little "x" as for where the mouse is located and it's telling you that you are hovering over a place where the two paths "intersect" (superficially). Click there, it adds a node on the selected object (the circle in this case) at the intersection point. Very useful.
Anyway, these types of advancements to the node tools & path system would rock... In my opinion at least... anyway, I wanted to get input before I file the appropriate RFEs/or additions to existing RFEs:
1) for path highlight & coloring per layer... (superficially) 2) some more advancements to the node tools (add to the existing RFE)
I'm mostly curious about your thoughts Bulia...
-Josh