more about programming style

[David M. Haynes]

> (Entering personal religious belief flammable mode)
> 
> Typedefs are very nice when applied sparingly.  Before you use
> typedefs, figure out why some intrinsic type won't do---perhaps
> the type will have to change on some machines, but once changed
> will be fine (e.g., if you need 24 bit integers, perhaps int is
> good enough, but maybe you need longs; perhaps you should use a
> typedef).  Typedefs can also help if a complex type is used very
> often.  Other than that they just it harder to figure out what's
> really happening.
> 
> -- 
> In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251)
> UUCP:	seismo!umcp-cs!chris
> CSNet:	chris at umcp-cs		ARPA:	chris at maryland
> 
Around these parts, its a standard thing to use typedefs with structs.
ie: struct foo { };    <- shorter than normal
    typedef struct foo FOO;

Now we can use a declaration like:

	FOO record;

and know that since its capitalized its declared locally.

Its also fairly common to use a typedef stream (or numerous #defines)
to declare portable declarators. 

ie:
	typedef uint16 unsigned int;	or	#define uint16 unsigned int
	typedef uint8 char;		or	#define uint8 char

This helps greatly when moving stuff from machine to machine.
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
						David M. Haynes
						Exegetics Inc.
						..!utzoo!ecrhub!david

"I am my own employer, so I guess my opinions are my own and that of
my company."