Okay, this is a weird melange of 
topics, but here goes...


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I've been working on a batch script 
for a little while now that really 
stumped me. I've figured out the 
problem, but I don't understand why it 
exists. Maybe one of you does.

In a batch file, you can insert a 
label at any point by putting a colon 
in front of it. You might use that 
label as a marker for the beginning of 
a section that you would regularly 
return to like a menu, or as the 
marker for the beginning of a 
subroutine.

Here's the weird part. Say I have a 
label called 

:read-a-file

If I want to simply "go to" that 
section, the syntax does not include 
the colon

goto read-a-file

But if I want to call read-a-file 
as a subroutine, and return to my 
original point afterwards[1], the 
syntax includes the colon

call :read-a-file

Why?????? I didn't realize the 
difference until today. I was using 
goto with the colon like this

goto :read-a-file

This was throwing me into crazy 
outcomes and making me tear out my 
hair!

Is there any good reason for the 
syntactical difference or do I just 
have to accept it as the arbitrary 
grammar of the command shell 
interpreter?


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I notice that jebug29 over at SDF is 
the inadvertant inventor of a Gopher 
Chat(tm) system. He created a comment 
section for his phlog, which requires 
you to enter your name along with your 
comment[2]. When people leave 
comments, he replies. It's completely 
like a chatroom! I suspect that it 
would be a short distance to 
associating a person's ip address and 
their name to make it so they didn't 
have to re-enter their name with each 
comment. Then it would be completely 
chat like.


-----------


You can now browse Gemini with old 
hardware over at portal.mozz.us. I 
asked M. Lazar if he could make the 
portal available over http so that I 
could read Gemlogs on my Bold 9900 -- 
and he did it! I love it and I'm not 
worried about being mitm'd by rogue 
Gemlog hijackers!!! 



[1] if the label indicates the 
beginning of a subroutine, the 
subroutine terminates with an EXIT /B

[2] gopher://sdf.org/1/users/jebug29/cgi-bin/read_comments.cgi