Loading icons during applet class init

Question

I load a bunch of icons thusly:
    ImageIcon[] typeIcons = {
        null,
        createImageIcon("context_icon", "Context"),
        createImageIcon("featureset_icon", "featureset"),
        createImageIcon("format_icon", "format"),
        createImageIcon("raster_icon", "grid"),
        createImageIcon("projection_icon", "projection")
    static ImageIcon createImageIcon(String name, String alt) {
        URL url = FeatureEditor.class.getResource(name + ".png");
        if(url == null)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No such image as " + name);
        return new ImageIcon(url, alt);
    }And display them as table cells.
That works ok, but why does it go screwy on me if I make the typeIcons array static? (The TableCellRenderer complains that the objects are of the wrong type).
I can't see why icon loading can't be initiated during class initialisation rather than in object initialisation.

Answer 1

Where the method is defined in the source code won't help- it will get called during the initialisation of the array just as before. Is there really no other class object available that you can use instead for the base of your resources? If there's nothing else in your package, then use Object.class and give the full path, rather than a relative one (assuming you're using the default class loader).
Pete