Should a Status Bar be in the Root Pane or Content Pane?

Question

Hello, I wonder if you can help...
Should a status bar be built into a JFrame (much like a JMenuBar, by extending JFrame and JRootPane along with its layout manager)?
I have created a status bar using the method above, but it seems to be more complex than it need be; so I am wondering whether to simply add it to a JFrames content pane.
Advantages of extending JRootPane and building the status bar as part of a frame:
1. It allows the frames content panes south region to remain unoccupied, and thus will not conflict with a JToolPanes positioning.
Advantages of adding the status bar to the content pane south region:
1. Keeps the design nice and simple, so no knowledge of the root pane need be known;
2. We can use composition (rather that inheritance) to define the frame and its parts.
All comments are welcome.

Answer 1

Hi,
( I search for iChat questions when I have finished in the iChat Forum)
So the menu bar reads iChat, File,  Edit,  View, Buddies, Video, Window and Help
There is no Buddy List open.
There is no other window for iChat open.
In the iChat Menu you only have access to Status.
Is an item ticked in the list ?
Is this a green (Available item) or  Red ( an Away one) ?
Can you access the Accounts option ?  (Sitll in the iChat Menu)
Is anything in here ticked ?
In the Window menu any Logged in account should appear in the list  (Between the Next Chat and File Transfer items)
It would be useful to know which version of iChat this is.
If no account is ticked (iChat Menu > Accounts) or not showing in the Window Menu, plus you cannot determine the Status and you cannot access the Preferences then you need to access your Home Folder/Library/Preferences
As the Library in the Home Holder is Invisible in Lion you will need the Finder's Go Menu > Go to Folder option  (you can use it in earlier OS versions if you want)
Type in:-
~/Library/Preferences
Find the file called com.apple.ichat.plist
Drag it to the Trash and Restart iChat.
This will lose all the settings in iChat that you have changed from Defaults but there is no way around this.
9:23 PM      Saturday; August 27, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously