Where do you see the lack of respect? The author wanted to learn how gzip works and chose to implement it in a language they like to do so. As a learning tool, not because the world needs another gzip decompressor.
#define MAXBITS 15
#define MAXLCODES 286
#define MAXDCODES 30
#define MAXCODES
#define FIXLCODES 288
struct state
local int bits(struct state *s, int need)
local int stored(struct state *s)
struct huffman
local int decode(...)
local int construct(...)
local int codes(...)
local int fixed(...)
local int dynamic(...)
int puff(...)