Quote Originally Posted by WaynePhillipsEA View Post
I would say mostly optional/obsolete. There will be edge cases, e.g. if a procedure is named the same as a syntax keyword, then the call prefix can still help to disambiguate between the keyword and the procedure name. But in the majority of cases it should be considered obsolete/optional.
OK, good .

About brackets (and anything that don't have a function), I prefer not to be required, if the reason is just "because it is required in other languages".
Better other languages learn from BASIC and not BASIC to be polluted with nosense requirements from other languages.
But to optionally accept the syntax (the parentheses without Call) if there is no harm is welcomed IMO.
So people coming from other languages can keep their habits.