C++ typedef interpretation of const pointers

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There’s no point in analyzing typedef behavior on the basis of textual replacement. Typedef-names are not macros, they are not replaced textually.

As you noted yourself 

typedef CHARS const CPTR;

is the same thing as

typedef const CHARS CPTR;

This is so for the very same reason why

typedef const int CI;

has the same meaning as

typedef int const CI;

Typedef-name don’t define new types (only aliases to existing ones), but they are “atomic” in a sense that any qualifiers (like const) apply at the very top level, i.e. they apply to the entire type hidden behind the typedef-name. Once you defined a typedef-name, you can’t “inject” a qualifier into it so that it would modify any deeper levels of the type.

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