one of the last proposals I made for the new gradient editor * the button "extract" with the color picker in it is a feature I imagined as following: you import a bitmap image to Inkscape then select it and click on the button so Inkscape will extract a color palette from the image and present them as color stops of a gradient.
a mockup i did for some features i wanted us to have in the new revamped gradient editor mike was developing. at the end we didnt incoporate all the features above but am hoping someone will did in the near future.
i proposed this to save space, make it familiar and retain the extra special functions Inkscape has over other vector tools. for the pattern, we could do this and display a default pattern or if it's possible we could show the actual pattern used in the shape.
my proposal for a draggable list of color stops in the new gradient editor.
proposal for a horizontal list of stops in the new gradient editor to save space in the dialog.
cursors i designed for the new gradient editor to ease its discoverability
I proposed this as a more familiar and intuitive node workflow compared to the current filter editor one