1. unify "Farming" profession name: It's called "Grower" on the embark menu, Farming (Fields) on the p>l menu... was there ever a Farming (Something else) option?
This bugs me, too. Not only do the skill, labor, and profession all have different names, but everyone in the food and cloth industry gets the autorank "Farmer" if they have multiple skills. This confused me to no end before I discovered custom professions.
2. display gender on the assign animal to chain/cage list.
A thousand times yes. I want all my females running around dropping offspring, but I need that male to stay on his chain.
3. Maybe some count of bars on the first level forge q menu? This might get annoying if you've got a huge bar stockpile, but if I'm making doodads for my favorites' rooms, I'd like to know at a glancier glance how much rose gold v. aluminum I have.
This is a very minor convenience. I find no trouble keeping track of my metal stores, though I tend to say "I want six chains," then check which metals I can use for that and assign it with the manager.
4. Is it possible to give caged invaders a different tag from 'invader'? I find myself attempting to center on a ambush group from the Units menu, and getting repeatedly sent to my own dining hall, where last years' attempts are hanging out... ;-)
It would be nice if they would change to simply "Hostile" once their group is disrupted.
Reclaimable cloth. The Loom or the Clothier's Shop could take x units of giant cave spider silk loincloth and create one Cave Spider Silk Cloth (of whatever quality level, depending on his weaving/clothesmaking skill, whichever...
You can buy silk from the caravans. If they're not bringing it for some reason, ask the liason. It's well worth the price.