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copied!<p>As Greg Hewgill said, the typedef means you no longer have to write <code>struct</code> all over the place. That not only saves keystrokes, it also can make the code cleaner since it provides a smidgen more abstraction.</p> <p>Stuff like</p> <pre><code>typedef struct { int x, y; } Point; Point point_new(int x, int y) { Point a; a.x = x; a.y = y; return a; } </code></pre> <p>becomes cleaner when you don't need to see the "struct" keyword all over the place, it looks more as if there really is a type called "Point" in your language. Which, after the <code>typedef</code>, is the case I guess.</p> <p>Also note that while your example (and mine) omitted naming the <code>struct</code> itself, actually naming it is also useful for when you want to provide an opaque type. Then you'd have code like this in the header, for instance:</p> <pre><code>typedef struct Point Point; Point * point_new(int x, int y); </code></pre> <p>and then provide the <code>struct</code> declaration in the implementation file:</p> <pre><code>struct Point { int x, y; }; Point * point_new(int x, int y) { Point *p; if((p = malloc(sizeof *p)) != NULL) { p->x = x; p->y = y; } return p; } </code></pre> <p>In this latter case, you cannot return the Point by value, since its declaration is hidden from users of the header file. This is a technique used widely in <a href="http://www.gtk.org/" rel="noreferrer">GTK+</a>, for instance.</p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> Note that there are also highly-regarded C projects where this use of <code>typedef</code> to hide <code>struct</code> is considered a bad idea, the Linux kernel is probably the most well-known such project. See Chapter 5 of <a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/coding-style.html#typedefs" rel="noreferrer">The Linux Kernel CodingStyle document</a> for Linus' angry words. :) My point is that the "should" in the question is perhaps not set in stone, after all.</p>

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