This code could be adapted to a stateless protocol like HTTP for periodic server queries, I think.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Tk;

#set up our window and some interactive feature
my $mw = Tk::MainWindow->new();
my $button = $mw->Button( -text => 'Pop', -command => sub {print "pop!
+\n";} )->pack();

#set up our periodic task.
#this executes faithfully every x milliseconds
$mw->repeat(5000, \&waiting );

MainLoop;

sub waiting {
    print "waiting...\n";
}
[download]

5000 is the milliseconds amount (so it's a very big number for only 5 seconds, but you can also give number as 5 * 1000 to remind yourself and ease figuring out longer intervals. Give this small script a try, as long as you don't mind locking up the client while the updates are happening you don't have to resort to process forking like the Tk chatterbox does.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.