This macro is a relic of libjpeg's historic need to support a wide
variety of C compilers with varying degrees of compatibility. Such was
necessary during the open systems era, because C compilers were often
supplied by the system vendor. Prior to 1989, there was no C standard
per se, and even after ANSI C became a thing, there were still compilers
in use that didn't conform to it (libjpeg was first released in 1991.)
Realistically, only a handful of C compilers are in widespread use these
days, and all modern C compilers should support structure assignment.