Strangeness in VLC for Mac

[Siamesecat]

With version 0.9.2 of VLC, the playlists do not work quite as they used to on my Mac. I had to delete the VLC plist file from my user library to get the text to appear in the window of the playlist.
What I would like to know is what is the function of the button with the plus sign at the bottom of the playlist window? The textbox that comes up when you click it asks you to enter the name of a node. I never realized that multimedia players had nodes. What is a node for VLC? What kind of syntax does the name of a node use, and what can you do with a node?