It's true that Omnis doesn't support the C++ concept of a "friend" (in the Omnis context, this would have allowed WindowB to access all the format vars in WindowA).
However, this is not a major deficiency because you RARELY want to provide uncontrolled access to ALL your format vars -- usually just selected ones.
In C++ and Objective C, the way you provide access is by passing pointers to your vars, to other objects. In addition, C++ also allows you to use references. Omnis provides both pointer- and reference-type vars.
For example: Format var fCharA is defined in FormatA. FormatB also needs direct access to it. To set this up, you need to do a one-time call between the two formats. You can have FormatA call FormatB, or vice versa.
1) A calls B:
In FormatA:
Format variable fCharA (Character 1000) Call procedure FormatB/Setup (fCharA)
In FormatB:
; Procedure Setup: Parameter pTemp (Field name) Format variable fCharB (Item reference) Set reference fCharB to pTemp.$ref
fCharB is now equivalent to fCharA. You can read or write the value of fCharA from anywhere within FormatB in all the usual ways, e.g.:
Calculate fCharB as ... If fCharB = 'abc'; etc ...
In the above example, pTemp is exactly like a C++ reference. However, since it's a local variable, we have to convert it into a format variable to increase its life span and widen its scope. fCharB is just like a C/C++ pointer, except that you don't need to use funky syntax to dereference it.
2) B calls A:
In FormatB:
Format variable fCharB (Item reference) Call procedure FormatA/Setup (fCharB)
In FormatA:
Parameter pTemp (Field name) Format variable fCharA (Character 1000) Set reference pTemp to fCharA.$ref
This technique can be used across libraries, and can also be applied to library vars.
