C Newbie Question: Explain (textBuffer *) in buf = (textBuffer *)XtMalloc(sizeof(textBuffer));

[Randy Kramer]

Can anybody help me understand the following statement, or more specifically, 
the "(textBuffer *)" part:

buf = (textBuffer *)XtMalloc(sizeof(textBuffer));

Just as a guess, I'm guessing that it does something like make buf a pointer 
to a thingie of type textBuffer, and, in fact the pointer points to the 
address of the memory returned by XtMalloc? 

Hmm, can I state that more clearly (or should I wait until confirmation that 
it is somewhere close to correct)?  I'll give it a shot: the statement makes 
buf a pointer to a portion of memory (returned by XtMalloc) of type 
textBuffer.

(By George, I might have got it (or, I might be off by a mile).)

Aside: At the moment, I don't care too much about the XtMalloc function--I 
assume it is allocating memory, is a function related to X, and if I wanted 
the details would have to look "over there" somewhere (like in Xlib, Motif, 
Lesstif, or whatever).

Thanks,
Randy Kramer