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


---------


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?


-----------


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