Why are #define and typedef operands inverted?

Question

The following defines A to be replaced by B:

#define A B

Whereas this defines A to be an alias for the type B:

typedef B A;

Why ? Isn't this incoherent ?

Answer 1

Simply put: consider the following variable declarations:

// declare a variable called "myInt" with type int
int myInt;
// declare a variable called "myDouble" with type double
double myDouble;
// declare a variable called "myLong" with type long
long myLong;
// declare a variable called "myFunc" with type pointer to function
void (*myFunc)(char*);

Then the typedefs make perfect sense:

// declare a type alias called "myInt" with type int
typedef int myInt;
// declare a type alias called "myDouble" with type double
typedef double myDouble;
// declare a type alias called "myLong" with type long
typedef long myLong;
// declare a type alias called "myFunc" with type pointer to function
typedef void (*myFunc)(char*);

Macros, on the other hand, can take on a function-style syntax:

#define A(B, C) B, C

A(1, 2) // expands out to 1, 2

So for macros, the "definition" coming after the "name" makes more sense.

(This applies to C++ too, by the way.)