>> It was pure gibberish

After many years in the form camp, I moved over to the function camp a decade or so ago.
At the end of the day, if code performs the business functions well it's good code and vice versa.
How it is written might make good academic fodder, but it's way down the list of importance compared to how well the code meets the business purpose.
If you think about it, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, by definition, could not have followed modern coding standards because there were none but their function was off the charts by the standards of that period.

Golf gives some wonderful examples of horrible form but outstanding function and vice versa.
For every Sam Snead, who had the most elegant swing in history and got the results to match, there are tens of thousands of beautiful swingers who can't score and an equal number of grotesque swingers who score beautifully.

If I thought I could shoot 65 while swinging like a lumberjack, I'd be on my way to Canada to watch some lumberjacks and I if thought I could write another DOS by doing what your example did, I'd be asking your man for some tips!