A cursed feature of C in 1972: Labels and functions were reassignable (i.e., lvalues)!

For example, this is a clever way to initialize once:

goto init;
init:
ouptr = oubuf;
init = init1;
init1:

which is compiled to:

jmp *4120
mov 4136,4144
mov 4122,4120

Note the indirect jump and assignment to that address. All gotos used indirect jumps. This apparently would have also worked with functions.

#c #unix #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing