They are used alot in Win32 as well. typedef's increase the readability of the code IMHO.<BR><BR>Question: Why do you need to know the base type? If I need to know what a type is, I look in the docs.

To typedef, or not to typedef? The way to declare structs (as well as unions and enums) in C is quite peculiar because the identifier following the keyword ‘struct’ is a tag (e.g., struct Foo {…};).