In the class, Prof. Yee talked about pointers to functions while explaining the sample program. For those who have difficulty in understanding C, C pointers and pointers to function, here are some links. Also see the rule of thumb to resolve pointers successfully.
The answer to resolving the pointers successfully lies in knowing the order of precedence.
e.g.
Given, int (*fn) ( float )
Firstly we associate the parentheses with the appropriate keywords enclosed within them viz., *fn with the first pair and float with the second pair of parentheses respectively. We then resolve the first pair of parenthesis to result in a identifier by associating the asterisk with fn ( the order of precedence for '*' when used as a pointer is read from right to left ), which says that fn is a pointer. Then we associate the identifier so formed to the second pair of parentheses thereby creating a pointer to a function. Finally, we are able to decipher that fn is a pointer to a function that takes a float argument and returns an integer.