While putting together some examples of using Gtk and Perl I came across the following behaviour which I hope someone can explain.

This piece of code complains of a BAREWORD under strict.

$switch->signal_connect( notify::active => \&toggle );

As you would expect, if I add some quotes the code works with no complaints.

$switch->signal_connect( 'notify::active' => \&toggle );

So - my question is - why does the following work and not complain about barewords.

$update_button->signal_connect ( clicked => \&update );

It seems that Perl sees notify::active and clicked differently and that seems inconsistent to my mind.

Can someone explain the behaviour?

In reply to Query about barewords by kevinp

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