edlinfan[1], whose alias alone should
give you a sense of his history with
DOS[2], wrote me with an explanation
of the syntactical differences between
the GOTO and CALL commands in batch
files[3].

Apparently, CALL was a late addition
to DOS commands (at least post-dating
DOS 3.3).

edlinfan explained that the proper
syntax for GOTO has never required a
colon. The weird thing is that with a
few fantastically aggravating
exceptions, GOTO was working *with*
the colons in place, which is why the
rare errors it produced were so hard
to figure out.

He also offered an explanation for
CALL's colon requirement: you can CALL
a subroutine saved in a separate file.
If you use the colon, it is clear that
you are calling a label. If there's no
colon, it's clear that a file is being
called. That distinction isn't
necessary in the case of GOTO, because
you can't GOTO another file.

So thanks edlinfan! I think the
mystery of GOTO, CALL, and the colon
is satisfactorily resolved.


[1] gopher://edlinfan.duckdns.org:7000/1

[2] gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Edlin

[3] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/~visiblink/phlog/20210811

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