These aliases make pointers and references look more like real types. See https://simonwo.net/code/clearer-cpp-types for more.

cleartypes.h

#pragma once

/* These type alias templates (introduced in C++11) allow
 * us to template typedefs (via a different syntax).
 *
 * Here we are templating generic pointer and reference types
 * so we could write ptr<T> instead of T*.
 *
 * See simonwo.net/code/clearer-cpp-types for more.
 */ 
 
template <typename T>
using ptr = T*;
 
template <typename T>
using ref = T&;

example.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include "cleartypes.h"
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

// http://ideone.com/5ybeb6   
int main() {
  ptr<const char> text = "Hello, World!";
  cout << text << endl;
     
  int i = 1;
  ref<int> j = i;
  j = 5;
  cout << i << endl;
     
  return 0;
}