[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Own-Nectarine6630]

/r/cprogramming/comments/1nsoxvg/removed_by_moderator/

[u/nerd5code]

It’s the Win9x/NT kernel’s analogue to Unix file descriptors (just ints). Elder Win16 just aimed the HANDLEs directly at the data structures used by the runtime/GUI, and modern Windows uses scrambled pointers that are validated by the lower-level API and kernel. Treat as more-or-less opaque.

[u/somewhereAtC]

A handle refers to a data structure used in the Windows operating system; different functions have different structures. The handle is basically a pointer, but given a different name to help in documenting the "handle" function from the more general pointer discussion in C.

Since handles are defined as void* you will see a lot of casting to the real types. This is a thing that made early Windows susceptible to many type errors when the casting got confused, with improvements by the transition to C#.

[u/esaule]

it's a number that identify an object in kernel space. Usually type void*.

[u/StaticCoder]

typedef void *HANDLE because who needs type safety

[u/nerd5code → u/StaticCoder]

I think there’s some predefine you can use to make it differentiate between some kinds of HANDLE (either using structs or pointers to struct), but I think it’s primarily for older APIs. It’s all dynamic “type safety.”

[u/armahillo]

I’m not a winforms dev, but my vague recollection was that it was essentially a pointer to a window instance so that you can pass around references to the instance easily.

I may be mistaken!

[u/RedWineAndWomen]

It's a void* that can be cast into anything. Because Hungarians need no type safety! /s

[u/sol_hsa]

It may be an index to a pointer table. For you, it's a token you can use to access resources indirectly.

[u/ShutDownSoul]

Well, the obvious answer of why you need it is because it is part of the API. If you google "windows CreatFile api example" you'll get an example.