One of the programs that encouraged me to write Chatter had the feature of sending icons along with a message. This added a lot to a conversation, but had several disadvantages:
1) The icons were only in black and white
2) You could only choose from 12 icons.
3) You couldn’t add your own icons. (well, you could, if you cracked it open with a resource editor and modified what was there, but that can get you into trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing. )
To extend this ability, I’ve introduced support for icon files. You can choose a resource file to read ICN# resources out of. I supply one with Chatter, but feel free to make up your own. For Chatter to use an icon file, the following restrictions apply:
1) No more than 30 icons in a file ( well, you can have more, but they won’t be displayed. )
2) The icons must be of the ICN# , icl4 and icl8 type. Chatter uses these for drawing in black and white and color, respectively. A background mask should be supplied as well.
3) The resource numbers should run from 600 to 629.
4) You can put the file anywhere and specify it by using the Use Icon File... menu option. Chatter defaults to look for a file called Chatter Icons in the Chatter Preferences folder in the Preferences folder, unless the Default Icon File... menu option has been used to specify another file.
