Is that a Raku Hash or Block?

Question

This is a bit of unexpected behavior that's likely to bite beginners. First, is this intended? Second, what other things does Raku use to guess which object to create? Does it start off thinking it's Block or Hash and change later, or does it decide on the end?

You can construct a Hash with braces and the fat arrow:

my $color-name-to-rgb = {
    'red' => 'FF0000',
    };

put $color-name-to-rgb.^name;  # Hash

Using the other Pair notation creates a Hash too.

my $color-name-to-rgb = {
    :red('FF0000'),
    };

But, absent the fat arrow, I get a Block instead:

my $color-name-to-rgb = {
    'red', 'FF0000',
    };

put $color-name-to-rgb.^name;  # Block

The Hash docs only mention that using $_ inside the braces creates a Block.

There are other ways to define a hash, but I'm asking about this particular bit of syntax and not looking for the workarounds I already know about.

$ perl6 -v
This is Rakudo version 2017.04.3 built on MoarVM version 2017.04-53-g66c6dda
implementing Perl 6.c.

Is that a Raku Hash or Block?

2 Answers