Fix #84, Remove side-effects and superfluous initializations

[thnkslprpt]

Checklist

• [x] I reviewed the Contributing Guide.
• [x] I signed and emailed the appropriate Contributor License Agreement to [email protected] and copied [email protected].

Describe the contribution

• Fixes #84
  • updates a couple of generic types to their typedefs
  • removes superfluous initializations (converts them to simple declaration/definition)
  • adds Status/Result variable to remove side-effects inside conditionals where it makes sense

Testing performed GitHub CI actions all passing successfully (incl. Build + Run, Unit/Functional Tests etc.).

Expected behavior changes No change to behavior. Code will be more readable, clearer and easier to maintain.

Contributor Info Avi Weiss @thnkslprpt