as someone who has no coding knowledge at all I am just throwing this out, but could it be possible for forge to add some kind of wrench api to their mod? if that would be possible, then modders might use this api for their wrench and machines or blocks. wouldn't it then be possible for the wrench from one mod to work on the other?
again, I have no coding knowledge at all, I am just doing some dumb thinking here.
I know it'd create more work for the forge team, and it shouldn't be so easy to have an api that would work on all mods, or for modders to change their code to adapt to the api...
That is what we were talking about with our earlier discussion over the concept of an "Item Dictionary": have Forge provide definitions for tool functionality that all mods could key into, making life easier for their players. Unfortunately this concept was shot down by the Forge 'powers that be' because they thought that Minecraft 1.7 might have a similar feature in it. (shrug)
It'd be very easy to add tool functionality into Forge, and it would also be ignored by basically every mod out there.
Why? You aren't going to make an interface that everyone is happy with. Look at wrenches and crowbars. Look at how Greg thinks wrenches should work. Look at TE's dismantle mechanic. So, which do you base it off of? BuildCraft's wrench? Alright, well IC2 will never go for that.
It's quite difficult to unify disparate APIs and work within or around limitations set by a mod, that's why the OmniWrench is on hold right now.
Forge does some things extremely well, mostly bugfixes and access changes. Aside from FML, the .obj file support, Events, the OreDictionary, and now the Liquid/Fluid System, Forge doesn't really add stuff in the way of content. That isn't the point.
The item dictionary as it was proposed was a bit silly - it makes a horrible assumption that two things with the same basic name (or registration tag) will behave in the same way. That isn't the case whatsoever. One modder could write a copper ore block that doesn't drop itself, but rather drops a chunk of ore. That mod might be the only thing that handles said chunks, which ends up screwing up everything else if it is determined that said version of copper ore is the canonical one.
When Forge puts a content change in, it's largely optional, and modders can choose to use it or not - and the nature of that means that something like this is never as simple or elegant as it sounds.