Good to know re the name, I typed it out a couple of times and wondered if I was just doing something stupid. I really wasn't trying to formulate an attack on this style, if someone or some organization uses it and it works then more power to them. I was really just trying to understand a bit better, but it's possible that is something that I can only really get by experience.

So I find APL, J, K and friends quite fascinating (and J is on my list to try) but I haven't seen much hostility to them. People understandably get a bit intimidated by how different it is but they usually still seem curious. The real hostility is reserved for Whitney C. In this case I don't think it's like - if you'll forgive me for abusing that human language metaphor a bit - an English speaker learning Russian, more like

    ifAnEnglishSpeakerEncountered
    aLocaleWhereEnglishIsWrittenA
    ndStructuredDifferentlyToWhat
    theyWereUsedToSomethingLikeTh
    is.

I can understand why their instinct is to recoil in horror and think "I already know a more standard English, I'm currently learning Russian and Japanese ... I have little patience for trying out this alternate form of English". It's obviously an exaggerated/contrived example, but this is genuinely how that C code appears to an outsider at first blush (or at least it did to me and a couple of my friends).

That said your replies have piqued my interest, I'm gonna have to properly dig through that ngn/k repo some day. If I turn into a Whitney C guy then I'm holding you responsible :D