$ splain < 2 perl -c packtest.pl Bareword "PENDULUM" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at packatest.pl line 9 (#1) (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>" symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine? packtest.pl had compilation errors (#2) (F) The final summary message when a perl -c fails.