Why have xxx_t typedef names

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <3377 at unisoft.UUCP> greywolf at unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf) writes:
>Is there/will there ever be a compile-time / cpp-time evaluation as to
>what types are defined?
>#if typed(stat_t)

No, because there ARE no types during preprocessing.

>There are many times I've wanted such a beast.

Lots of people would like it, too, but it would be a substantially
different language.  Keep this in mind when designing a new general-
purpose programming language.

>Also, do typedefs ever make it into an object's/executable's nlist?

Different object file formats have different support for this, but
note that a typedef does NOT define a new type, merely an identifier
that can be used to represent existing types.  Thus no "strong typing"
of such types is permitted, which limits its utility for debugging etc.