Hi Friends,
I've restarted Inkscape 3 times, but this problem keeps recurring, which makes me suspicious of it potentially being a bug. I have 2 straight open paths, separated by ~1000 px, and interpolated by 300 steps (making a fabric texture). To the group of stroked paths I've applied a gradient. I added one stop, set its color and adjusted it, then I went on to other things. The next time I selected the group and switched to the gradient tool, the handle of the intermediate stop didn't show up. I''ve tried everything I can think of to try and make it show up -- selected a handle, selected both end handles, moved the handles, switch to Selection tool and back to Gradient tool -- but I can't make them show up.

I have had a problem with Inkscape, which has happened fairly often, where a button or a menu item just stops responding to the mouse. (started with 0.47) It's never happened to more than one button or menu item at a time. Often it seems to be a button or menu item that I'm using heavily in that session, but not always. Closing the file and reopening resolves the problem every time.

At first, I thought this was that problem, so I restarted Inkscape. The intermediate stop was showing up again, and so I thought, well, this is the first time it's happened to a tool or handle. But then the next time I selected that group and switched to the Gradient tool, the stop waas once again not visible. This time, in addition to selecting stops and moving handles, I tried adding more stops, in attempt to make them show up. But the newly added stops are not visible either.

Now I've gone through the same routine 3 or 4 times, and the intermediate stops keep on disappearing. So I'm thinking it's a new bug. However, I'm not sure enough, to submit a bug report. So hopefully some of you can test, and we can sort out whether this should be reported. This is on Win7, 64-bit and the new Inkscape 0.48.4.

I have not tested different kinds of objects, or on grouped vs not grouped. But I do have a simple closed path with a gradient fill, which is behaving properly. I'll try to narrow down the specifics as soon as I can. But of course, any input from others will still be helpful

Thanks for your help

More info.
So of course on-canvas editing of this gradient is tricky, since some of the stop handles don't show up. But even the 2 end handles can't be edited on the canvas. No, now I've tested in a new file, and it just can't be edited on canvas. Well, some things can be edited. You can drag the 2 end handles, but that's about it. You have to use the Gradient Editor to change color or opacity of the stops. OH! That's not true! It can't be edited at all. In the image I'm working on, I did somehow manage to edit the gradient slightly (yesterday), but now I can't edit at all, by any means that I know of.

Now I've test a single stroked path (no problems) and a group of stroked paths (some problems, but not this one*) and another interpolation group (same problem). These are in the attached file, if anyone wants to test.

* The problem with the group of stroked paths is that the original object somehow doesn't show the gradient. I suppose this is a 2nd, entirely different problem, so maybe I should start another topic....I'm not sure. Comments?

I made the group by drawing one short path with Pen/Bezier tool, then duplicated it, duplicated the duplicate, etc until I have 5 stroked paths. Then I select all and Group. Then I apply the gradient by clicking on the linear gradient button in F/S dialog > Stroke paint tab. The gradient is only applied to the 4 duplicates. The original object is unaffected by the gradient!

Here's the file if anyone wants to test:


Edit
Now I've tested a closed path with interpolation. There is no problem with either the stroke or fill when applying a gradient to the interpolated group. Ah-HA! If there is a fill in the interpolated group, both the fill and stroke can successfully have gradients applied and edited. But if the objects to be interpolated have no fill, the gradient applied to the strokes can't be edited by any means that I can find! I'm going to remove the attachment and upload a slightly different file, showing an interpolated closed path.

Ah-HA! If I give the objects a fill (even if they are straight lines) it allows the gradient to be successfully applied and edited. Then afterwards, I remove the fill, and the gradient still can be editted!

So yay - problem solved! But still a bug, I think. Should I report to Launchpad? I guess both problems should be reported?