[RESOLVED] Form class variables and static functions

[pjrage]

I'll start by saying that I'm new to C# and to .NET, I'm used to VB6 where I've never worried about alot of this stuff much.

So, I have a class, say, Form1. Form1 has some public variables, say, variable1, and variable2. Now I also have a static function: public static int function1(int input1). Within function1's definition, I cannot access Form1.variable1, or Project1.Form1.variable1, and I was confused as to why. To work around, I added to the beginning of function1:

Form1 TempForm = (Form1)Form1.ActiveForm;

This works, but only to a point, and it comes down to the ActiveForm, I think. If I run the project and the activeform changes (in my case an activex control can open a form with settings for that control), the program crashes with a NullReferenceException at the point where it attempts to access TempForm.variable1. Presumably this is because the active form does not have this variable?

So my question is, how could/should I be accessing variables within a Form Class? Are you not meant to? This isn't limited to static functions either, I don't think, I really can't access them ever without using this or creating an instance like I did inside my example of function1. If what I did is alright to do, then how should I handle the activeform changing when you select a different form within the same project?

I guess I'm really just unfamiliar with creating instances properly in general, but since I've been using Forms alot, I've found it frustrating to access their variables, etc.

I also forgot to mention that I get warnings doing it the way I'm doing, talking about the possibility of a runtime exception regarding accessing the variables because they are fields of a Marshal-by-reference class. Can someone explain Marshaling briefly and how it is used?

I know this is alot to ask, but I think some simple code that works and is "right" can clear this all up for me.

Andrew