&gt; and because the greybeards at RedHat thinks it looks nicer with all the variables declared at the top.<p>Why do people always assume newer = better? Get the basics right. Yes, declaring your variables at the top does usually look nicer. It requires more code discipline, it often forces you to better decompose your code, but usually results in better code structure and readabilty.<p>C is not a language to program at scripting speed in the first place.