If you think about a string eval, the problem would have been clearer, I think:

eval '1'
if (1) {}
[download]

but if you would write the block eval as:

eval {
    1
}
if (1) {
}
[download]

then it becomes very confusing and unclear why that would be a problem. I guess it's just one of the Perl's syntaxical quirks that you need to get used to.

Liz

For what it's worth, I believe that the language design for Perl 6 specifies that the trailing semicolon after an eval block will become optional.

I think the problem is that the if is seen as a modifier to the eval statement, after which point the {} mucks up the parsing.

You'd get the same error from: print "hahaha\n" if (1) {};

So, in the eval case, perl thinks you want: eval { 1 } if ($@); but finds an extra block.

Thank you: I was trying to figure out why it was wrong myself. It didn't seem so very wrong, because I always associate {} with "code blocks" that don't require trailing ;'s. When you put it in terms of the string eval that makes it a lot clearer.