>perl -e"use diagnostics; use strict; print ${'x'}" Can't use string ("x") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at -e line 1 (#1) (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references are disallowed. See perlref. Uncaught exception from user code: Can't use string ("x") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at -e line 1. at -e line 1