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Consider that this was a time before the internet. People had much less communication with other programmers in those days. Lots of people learned C by picking up a book, not reading about it online. There really wasn't much of a way to learn best practices from others.

I can confirm I saw it done a few times.

I'll agree then that our experiences can be different.

But ...

> It's not as rare as you suggest.

is still IMO a far cry from "common".