Your advice is a little off-point; while the posted code does contain a syntax error, this is a compilation error. Neither the addition of strict nor warnings would give any additional insight into the nature of the issue. Once you fix the curly issue, the code passes both tests just fine. I love these pragma dearly, but will never cite them in a response unless they actually help in the particular situation. Expecting people to include them above every code snippet, or expecting every code snippet to be a full script, is unnecessary orthodoxy.

You may also wish to peruse ree's profile to gather information about his familiarity with the language.