use strict;

sub odd_args {
  my($this, %$args) = @_;
  print $args->{x},"\n";
}

odd_args(1, x => 2);

##</code><code>##

% perl5.6.1 qqq.pl
2

% /usr/local/bin/perl5.8.0 qqq.pl
Can't declare hash dereference in my at qqq.pl line 4, near ") ="
Execution of qqq.pl aborted due to compilation errors.