Feature request: Pattern Along Path -Edit-On-Canvas pattern in its own window?

How would you control drawing aids like grid, guides and snapping for that extra preview window? The nice thing about editing the pattern on-canvas is that you can use all drawing aids from the main document window, and even snap to existing objects while adjusting the pattern source.

> The issue I have, and I'm sure others have mentioned it, is that when you click
> on the Edit-On-Canvas button the pattern appears in the top left corner
> of the drawing and is extremely tiny.

Related earlier feature requests:
- Bug #518703 “Pattern Source for "Pattern Along Path" should automatically be visible, regardless of canvas zoom depth”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/518703>
- Bug #682851 “Shape in "pattern along the path" yould be in top left of the shape”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/682851>

> I use this effect to control the my line thickness in a drawing and the
> implementation of this is simply ingenious, thank you!

Another thing to keep in mind is that the 'Pattern along Path' LPE currently used with the pen and pencil tools will be replaced by the new PowerStroke LPE (at least for 'Triangle In/Out' shapes) in the next major release (0.49):
<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.49#PowerStroke>
<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/PowerStroke>

The requirements for an improved UI for PowerStroke will be different and no longer be based on a pattern source. Powerstroke is much closer to having a freely adjustable stroke width than the current 'workaround' with the 'Pattern along Path' LPE, and the effect can be very intuitively adjusted with on-canvas handles.

Looking forward to seeing this Powerstroke feature you mention.

Last night I discovered a way to make the the source pattern thing a little easier to deal with, but it may be moot if the whole system is scrapped in favour of this newer Powerstroke method.

Basically I discovered that the "Width" value very much behaves like the "Strength" value I was suggesting. I found that if I set the width much lower, say 0.03 I could then make my source pattern much larger and easier to see while watching the object I was applying the effect to. With the value set at 1.0 the source pattern is minuscule compared to most objects you'd be applying it to on the canvas. *Note I also had "Width In Units Of Length" checked off, otherwise this won't work.

Like I said this may be too late in the game for it to be of use to anyone but perhaps in the meantime people will read this and it'll help them make better use of what I'm finding to be an amazingly useful feature.

PS. Couldn't the pattern source origin be linked with the coordinates of the bounding box around the object that the effect is being applied to? This would be better than 0,0 or whatever the top left coordinate is.

Marking issue as confirmed based on the number of related requests.