Sure. Also, K&R C tended to target platforms with really simple ABIs, where parameters were always passed on the stack and everything was a machine word; so you

Sure. Also, K&R C tended to target platforms with really simple ABIs, where parameters were always passed on the stack and everything was a machine word; so you could get away with this kind of thing. K&R C actually has a minimalist elegance to it that later versions of C lost. Not that I'm claiming that it's better, of course. But K&R C had a distinct philosophy to it that was definitely its own.