I suspect that many entries in the IOCCC (International Obfuscated C Code Contest) [1] start out as normal [2], are converted to K&R [3] as a first step, then rename all variables and functions to one or two character names and unneeded spaces removed.
Much like today's version.
>
```
/*************************************************************************
*
* Copyright 2012 by Sean Conner. All Rights Reserved.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
* of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
*
* Comments, questions and criticisms can be sent to: sean@conman.org
*
*************************************************************************/
/* Style: K&R, system calls, full buffering, obfuscated */
#include <errno.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
main(a,b)char**b;{int i,f;if(a==1)fa(0,1);else{for(i=1;i<a;i++){f=open
(b[i],O_RDONLY);if(f==-1){fd(b[i]);continue;}ff(1,"-----",5);ff(1,b[i],
strlen(b[i]));ff(1,"-----\n",6);fa(f,1);if(close(f)<0)fd(b[i]);}}return 0;}
char a[4096],b[75*109];
fa(c,d){int e,f,g,h;char*i,*p;memset(b,' ',sizeof(b));e=g=0;i=b;
while((f=fe(c,(char *)a,sizeof(a)))>0){p=a;for(p=a;f>0;){h=fb(&i,p,f,e);
p+=h;f-=h;e+=h;g++;if(g==109){ff(d,b,i-b);memset(b,' ',sizeof(b));g=0;
i=b;}}}if (i-b>0)ff(d,b,i-b);}
fb(a,p,c,d)char**a,*p;{char*e,*f,*g;int h;e=*a;fc(e,d,8,':');if(c>16)
{c=16;}p+=c;f=&e[10+c*3];g=&e[58+c];for(h=0;h<c;h++){p--;g--;f-=3;
if((*p>=' ')&&(*p<='~'))*g=*p;else*g = '.';fc(f,*p,2,' ');}e[58+h]='\n';
*a=&e[59+h];return h;}
fc(a,b,c,d)char*a;{a[c]=d;while(c--){a[c]=
(b&0x0F)+'0';if(a[c]>'9')a[c]+=7;b>>=4;}}
fd(a)char*a;{extern char**sys_errlist;extern int sys_nerr;int b=errno;
ff(2,a,strlen(a));ff(2,": ",2);if(b>sys_nerr){ff(2,"(unknown)",9);}else
{ff(2,sys_errlist[b],strlen(sys_errlist[b]));}ff(2,"\n",1);}
fe(a,b,c)char*b;{int d=0,e;while(c>0){e=read(a,b,c);if(e<0){fd("read()");
exit(1);}if(e==0){break;}d+=e;c-=e;b+=e;}return d;}
ff(a,b,c)char*b;{if(write(a,b,c)<c){if(a!=2){fd("output");}exit(1);}}
```
The sad thing—I've seen production code like this (and no, The Protocol Stack From Hell™ [4] isn't this bad, thankfully).