Hi how about using tabs for the chats? There could be one for the console and one tab for each chat partner. I think there should be something in GTK that provides tabs and I would guess that it might take care of remembering the text+highlights etc for each tab. Once there is a message for a tab, the tab label could get highlighted.
At the moment I don't have much time to test anything, but let me know if I should and I'll give it a try. Arun
