why not? Because it is bad? Because it is bad style? Because it will lead to unexpected results? I don't mean to be argumentative, but just telling me I shouldn't is not satifying.

Well, you already indicated that you saw the musings of Mark Jason Dominus about this subject. Perhaps you should reread them. He did a much better job than I can.

or I could just

&$action;
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but I can't because that is not allowed under use strict; so I

eval($action);
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That's just plain stupid. If you really want to do something that strict prevents you from doing, you shouldn't code your way around it - just turn strictness (locally) off. Using eval in this case, is like entering the house through the chimney, because the door is closed, but unlocked.

Imagine if I had a lot of choices for action -- that would be a lot of if statements.

No. You'd use a reference to the function you want to execute, or you use a hash. &$action could be dangerous. What if $action contains a string for which there isn't a subroutine by that name? Or worse, a name of a subroutine which really shouldn't be called right now? Please reread Mark Jasons articles again. They explain the dangers.

Note that I'm not saying that you should never use symbolic references. But as long as you don't understand the dangers, don't use them. Don't play with matches before you understand fire either.

Abigail