I've already had some help from the chatterbox but things are still a bit hazy re: strict In the following all works OK until I switch strict on. I then get Multiple 'errors' along the lines of: Global symbol "$thingy" requires explicit package name at... Could anyone advise - I've included the code below. Thanks. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
###@words = ("camel", "llama", "alpaca");
###
###        #or
###        #@words = qw(camel llama alpaca); # qw acts to specify "" t
+o each variable
###

### Above shows the use of an 'array' - the following describes an 'ha
+sh' shown as %a (see 'pinky' for full program)


%words = qw    (

        fred    camel
        barney    llama
        betty     alpaca
        wilma   alpaca

        );

print "What is your name? ";
$name = <>;
chomp $name;

if
    ($name eq "pete")
    {
        print "Hello, $name! \n";
    }        
else
    {
            print "Hello $name,\n ";

#next section has 2 possible routes

            $secretword = $words{$name};
            if  (! defined $secretword) {$secretword = "groucho"; }
# or
#            $secretword = $words{$name} || 'groucho'; # || = OR therf
+ore this states 
#             if names exisits then set it if not then all other = gro
+ucho.
            
        
    print "What's the secret word ?\n";

        $guess = <>;
        chomp ($guess);

        while ($guess ne $secretword)

                {

                print " Niet - try again, What is the secret word ? \n
+";

                $guess = <>;
                        chomp ($guess);
                
                }
    }

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In reply to Strict Usage by All0uette

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