These days, they're pretty much obsolete; they're definitely system-particular. They had to do with 16-bit programming under MS-DOS and perhaps some early on versions of Windows. If you really require to know, see a DOS- or Windows-specific programming reference. If you're using a machine which doesn't need (or permit) making the near/far pointer distinction, just delete the unnecessary ''near'' and ''far'' keywords (perhaps using the preprocessor: ''#define far /* nothing */'').