Inkscape

Noticed that lack of spacing, too...

The explanation is on inkscape-devel (in case you were wondering)

Yes, thanks Eduard :)

What I didn't dare ask there: what's the purpose of the checkboxes?...

Open/close dialogs? Toggle settings, like in the View/Hide menu, where we currently have the little check marks? Or is it up to the person who uses them?
(Aside from the different views, I don't know where that checkbox column would be needed at all)

I'm not 100% sure I understood you question, but if you're asking where in Inkscape we actually use checkboxes for menu items then you already gave the answer: In very few places ;-)

The only menu I'm aware of that uses checkboxes (and also radio buttons) is the view menu and some of it's sub-menus.

(and yet GTK+ devs seem to be of the opinion that reserving space for these is *very* important while icons are completely unnecessary...)

Okay, so it just *is* as weird as it seemed :) Thanks :)

(there were lots of checkboxes in the example images, with no apparent purpose)