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From: UN020070@WVNVAXA.WVNET.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: On writing an LDEF to draw icons: store icon data or handle?
Message-ID: <01G6IKL90CBQ8WWD4Y@WVNVMS.WVNET.EDU>
Date: 2 Jun 91 03:39:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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Subject:  On writing an LDEF to draw icons: store icon data or handle?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Reply-To: un020070@vaxa.wvnet.edu

I'm writing a list definition (LDEF) to draw icons from the list manager.
I can think of two ways to store the data:

1.  Store the actual data (128 bytes, I think) of the icon as the cell
    data.
2.  Store a *handle* to the icon in the cell data; this will make the
    cell data only a longword long.  The icon itself will be somewhere
    else in memory.

The list I will be using this for will be very similar to the one in
Hypercard for selecting button icons, except that the user will be
able to add new icons and to edit them (although the list will be
dismissed before the editing occurs, so that's not a major consideration.)

Does anyone have any experience in doing this?  What are the pros and
cons of the two strategies?

Please respond by email since I have in fact lost my ability to
post and read news and must now smuggle this posting in through
a daemon-posessed email address.  (This is the first time I have
tried doing this; if nobody sees this, please let me know :-)

--Kurisuto
un020070@vaxa.wvnet.edu