>perl -ce"sub foo {} fob 'abc'" String found where operator expected at -e line 1, near "fob 'abc'" (Do you need to predeclare fob?) syntax error at -e line 1, near "fob 'abc'" -e had compilation errors. >perl -ce"sub foo {} foo 'abc'" -e syntax OK #### >perl -ce"sub foo {} foo { abc => 1 }" -e syntax OK >perl -ce"sub foo {} fob { abc => 1 }" -e syntax OK #### >perl -MO=Deparse -ce"sub foo {} fob { abc => 1 }" sub foo { } do { 'abc', 1 }->fob; -e syntax OK