Re: converting a command-line program to one with a "pretty" interface

[tachyon]

With a program that sleeps for N units of time and then does stuff the obvious solution would be to make it read a config file as soon as it wakes up, then the bulk of the interface just edits this file. On *nix you could use a HUP signal to make the daemon re-read the config file. $SIG{HUP} = \&read_config;

[punkish]

thanks for the advice. The config file is read only at start-up time -- it contains the various email addresses and db params. Once the program gets going, the only interaction with the user would be to display the status (perhaps by showing the log file of what has been done) or let the user stop/restart the program.