Understanding name spaces in POE-Tk - perl

Question

I posted "How to undersand the POE-Tk use of destroy?" in an attempt to reduce the bug in my production code to a test case. But it seems that the solution to the test case is not working in the full program.
The program is 800+ lines long so I am hesitant to post it in full. I realize that the snippets I provide here may be too short to be of any use, but I hope to get some direction in either where to look for a solution or what additional information I can provide.
Here is the Session::Create section of my POE-Tk app.
POE::Session->create(
inline_states => {
_start => \&ui_start,
get_zone => \&get_zone,
ping => \&ping,
mk_disable => \&mk_disable,
mk_active => \&mk_active,
pop_up_add => \&pop_up_add,
add_button_press => sub {
my ($kernel, $session, $heap) = #_[KERNEL, SESSION, HEAP];
print "\nadd button pressed\n\n";
&validate;
},
ih_button_1_press => sub {
my ($kernel, $session, $heap) = #_[KERNEL, SESSION, HEAP];
print "\nih_button_1 pressed\n\n";
if( Tk::Exists($heap->{ih_mw}) ) {
print "\n\nih_mw exists in ih_button_1_press\n\n";
} else {
print "\n\nih_mw does not exist in ih_button_1_press\n\n";
}
1;
$heap->{ih_mw}->destroy if Tk::Exists($heap->{ih_mw});
&auth;
},
pop_up_del => \&pop_up_del,
auth => \&auth,
# validate => \&validate,
auth_routine => \&auth_routine,
raise_widget => \&raise_widget,
del_action => \&del_action,
over => sub { exit; }
}
);
add_button_press is called here;
sub pop_up_add {
...
my $add_but_2 = $add_frm_2->Button(
-text => "Add Record",
-command => $session->postback("add_button_press"),
-font => "{Arial} 12 {bold}") -> pack(
-anchor => 'c',
-pady => 6,
);
...
}
validate creates the Toplevel widget $heap->{ih_mw};
sub validate {
...
if( ! $valid ) {
print "\n! valid entered\n\n";
$heap->{label_text} .= "Add record anyway?";
my $lt_ref = \$heap->{label_text};
...
my $heap->{ih_mw} = $heap->{add_mw}->Toplevel( -title => "ih_mw");
...
if( Tk::Exists($heap->{ih_mw}) ) {
print "\n\nih_mw exists in validate\n\n";
} else {
print "\n\nih_mw does not exist in validate\n\n";
}
...
my $ih_but1 = $heap->{ih_mw}->Button( -text => "Add",
-font => 'vfont',
-command => $session->postback("ih_button_1_press"),
)->pack( -pady => 5 );
...
}
Pressing $ih_but1 results in this;
C:\scripts\alias\resource>alias_poe_V-3_0_par.pl
add button pressed
sub validate called
! valid entered
ih_mw exists in validate
ih_button_1 pressed
ih_mw does not exist in ih_button_1_press
So the $heap->{ih_mw} widget seems to be unkown to the ih_button_1_press anonymous subroutine even with the inclusion of "($kernel, $session, $heap) = #_[KERNEL, SESSION, HEAP];"

Answer 1

Where does $heap in &validate come from? You don't pass it as a parameter. Could $heap in &validate and $heap in &in_button_1_press not be the same thing? Have you tried printing the stringy form of $heap to see if the addresses are the same in the two functions?