yes, you are right, Net::IRC is blocking, even though the documentation says that do_one_loop allows it to work with other event based loops like Tk. Considering I'm a newbie, I have no idea where to begin using threads or processes. My program will need to share data with the IRC thread, so I know forking won't work right even with SIG. I was looking at Win32::Process but I'm so confused. Anybody know of a good book/website/tutorial/example using Win32::Process?
You don't want to be messing with Win32::Process - use threads - a lot simpler. As a rule of thumb, with a little care you can share most things between threads.
Make sure you have a modern Perl - 5.8.7 is good. There are a couple of tutorials in the documentation to get you started - but expect a learning curve - thread programming can be a right pain. Once you've got a handle on the basics, search this mailing list for GUI thread examples.
Cheers, jez.
