🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Aug10.162757.13720@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov> Kaleb Keithley writes:
/Question 1: Given the following code fragment...
/MRESULT EXPENTRY ClientWndProc (
/    HWND     hwnd,
/    USHORT   msg,
     ^^^^^^
/    MPARAM   mp1,
/    MPARAM   mp2)

I've never understood this strange urge to #define the basic types. 
Is anyone out there using a compiler where USHORT would be anything
other than "unsigned short"? How about SHORT being anything other
than short, or LONG being anything other than long?

They remind me of the old practice (now discredited, after being discovered
to be useless) of:
	#define BEGIN {
	#define END   }

These silly typedefs create a useless layer of obfuscation and another
potential source of error (I always have to check if SHORT really was
short!)

Another brain-dead one is:
	#define FAR far
The argument I hear is that on systems without far, you can just do:
	#define FAR
and it goes away! True, but why cannot one do:
	#define far
and achieve just as much portability?

(P.S. I have running code that compiles and runs on 16 bit DOS, 32 bit
DOS, 16 and 32 bit OS/2, Windows, Windows NT and 68000 Macintoshes.
Never have I needed those aliases for the basic types.)