function pointers typedef bool (*should_swap) (int, int); all function’s names are pointers to first address of the function’s machine code in memory. When writing a generic function, if we don’t know about the behavior of something (such as comparison), etc., we have to rely on the client to specify the information in terms of a function. function writer: writes algorithmic function, relies on caller data function caller: knows data, and doesn’t know how algorithm knows