Question

In theory it seems that books sugest declaring ADT in C as:

struct some_structure;
typedef some_structure *some_structure_t;

while most code uses:

struct some_structure;
typedef some_structure some_structure_t;

I know that const is not working with the first style. Is this the only reason for real libraries not to use first approach? Any further notices or suggestions?

Answer 1

you mean abstract data type? If I abstract 😉 from the syntax errors in your code snipsets, I think, yes typedef of pointer types is frowned upon because problems with const and volatile.

BTW, another problem with your code are the names you have chosen. _t as an ending is reserved for future use in POSIX.