Should Helper/Utility Classes be abstract?

Question

I commonly find myself extracting common behavior out of classes into helper/utility classes that contain nothing but a set of static methods. I\'ve often wondered if I sho

Answer 1

Helper / Utility methods are just fine. Don't worry about adding them to a library inside your application or Framework. Most frameworks that I have seen use them in many varieties.

That being said, if you want to get really crafty about them you should look into extension methods in C# 3.0. Using extension method will make your Utilities a little more of a "holistic" part of your framework which it seems like what you're trying to do by considering to make them abstract. Not to mention extension method are a lot of fun to write!