Best practice of re-use a method in constructing a JFrame

Question

Hello All,
I constructed a Main JFrame with the help of following method:
     JPanel createYpanel(JLabel lbl, JComponent txt){
          JPanel pane = new JPanel();
          pane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(pane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
          pane.add(lbl);
          pane.add(txt);
          return pane;
     }Now, I need the above method for constructing a Child JFrame.
What is the best programming approach?
(a) Create a different private JPanel createYpanel(...) {...} in the Child JFrame, although it is 100% the same as that in the Main JFrame.
(b) Make the method in the Main JFrame as static
static JPanel createYpanel(...) {...}, so that it can be accessed by the Child JFrame as Main.createYpanel(lblA, cmpA);(c) Keep the method in the Main JFrame as non-static, but create an instance of the Main JFrame in the Child JFrame to access the method, such as
JFrame mn = new Main();
mn.createYpanel(lblA, cmpA);(d) None of the above. Please give me a better approach.
My best guess:
option (c) is the worst, since it needs to instantiate a Main JFrame only for the purpose of accessing this method and option (a) is redundancy although it can be done quickly by copy and paste. However, I'm not sure whether making a method static for this purpose is the best approach. Can anyone confirm this?
Thank you for your help.
Edited by: Patrick_Stiady on Jul 11, 2009 2:13 AM

Answer 1

What is the best programming approach?I'm always reluctant to qualify any programming technique as "the best" - many ways to skin the cat.
But here's my preference.
(b) Make the method in the Main JFrame as staticYes.
This instance method (currently) doesn't use any state nor collaborator from the instance, only its arguments.
So it can be static. Indeed it should be static, for the other reasons you mention (no need to create an artificial "MainFrame" instance).
However, you could locate this method in another class (+PanelUtility+, PanelFactory, whatever). Letting it in MainFrame, and using it from ChildFrame introduces a dependency that may not be relevant (if MainFrame publishes nothing else of use to the ChildFrame).