sockaddr and sockaddr_in struct. The size of both structure equals. The textbook (unix network programming book) said because in that time, there's no void* pointer yet, thus it has to be casted to generic socket address structure.

in.h

/* Structure describing an Internet socket address.  */
struct sockaddr_in
  {
    __SOCKADDR_COMMON (sin_);
    in_port_t sin_port;			/* Port number.  */
    struct in_addr sin_addr;		/* Internet address.  */

    /* Pad to size of `struct sockaddr'.  */
    unsigned char sin_zero[sizeof (struct sockaddr) -
			   __SOCKADDR_COMMON_SIZE -
			   sizeof (in_port_t) -
			   sizeof (struct in_addr)];
  };

socket.h

/* Structure describing a generic socket address.  */
struct sockaddr
  {
    __SOCKADDR_COMMON (sa_);	/* Common data: address family and length.  */
    char sa_data[14];		/* Address data.  */
  };