Don't use TextBoxes for data interchange. You're not using VB6.
Remember that when you are using C++/CLI, you have to be careful about trying to do things that are legal in C++ but not legal in .NET. I'm not sure why the compiler doesn't automatically handle it, but you can make global references to managed objects by using a static member of a class instead.
Putting the values on the forms is indeed a better way of doing this, but I'd recommend using instance properties rather than public fields or statics. C++/CLI has a shortcut for this:
| CODE |
property String^ CurrentText; |
However, I'd go farther and say that you should also avoid having the two forms talk to each other. Part of your method 1 was a good idea in that you should have the main form set up the second form based on the output of the first. This is cleaner within the forms themselves and avoids the need for icky code where the second form "adopts" the parenting of the first form. I believe formally you'd want to do this via a controller object that's not a form (view), but for simple stuff I'd just put it in the main form. Just have an exit strategy for when the main form code starts to balloon, as inevitably happens.
In general, you shouldn't need to use non-constant static variables that much in .NET code. The ubiquity of delegates, events, and interfaces usually makes this unnecessary as you can always pass around class objects. It's also a good idea to avoid them because statics are excellent anchor points to introduce huge memory leaks into your program, particularly static events.
