Re: passing vector as argument

Actually you can say it about any data structure. Having a
variable `data', for instance, is no different from `MyVector'
typedef. However, usually this is not the case. The following code

class CustomerInfo { ... };

typedef std::vector<CustomerInfo> CustomerInfoVec;

void UpdateCustomerXYZ(CustomerInfoVec& civ)
{
    for(CustomerInfoVec::iterator it = civ.begin();
        it != civ.end();
        ++it)
    {
        CustomerInfo& ci = *it;
        ...
    }
}

is much easier to read comparing to this one:

void UpdateCustomerXYZ(std::vector<CustomerInfo>& civ)
{
    for(std::vector<CustomerInfo>::iterator it = civ.begin();
        it != civ.end();
        ++it)
    {
        CustomerInfo& ci = *it;
        ...
    }
}

In the case of `std::map' the typedef version is even more
eloquent:

typdef std::map<CustomerID, CustomerInfo> CustomerInfoMap;

CustomerInfoMap::value_type v = ...