Perl Tk--Delay

[FM]

Dear Monks,
I am troubled by the behavior of my code. I was hoping to show my user what the program that I transparently call is doing as it is doing it, but instead, Perl calls the program even before the textarea is drawn. I even made a separate method to see if that would make a difference, which it does not.
I would be most greatful if anyone could point me in the right direction.
Below is only the snipped where it is not acting right.

if($answerbatch eq 'CONTINUE'){
  $progressta->place(-x=>0, -y=>0);
  cont();
}else{
   clearthird();
 }#else

sub cont{
  my $i=0;
  foreach (@arrayfilename){
  $_ .= ".log\"";
  system ("robocopy $gGui{original_source}$arraydirectory[$i]\" $gGui{
+original_dest}$_");
  $progressta->insert('end lineend', "Robocopy is now processing $_,\n
+");
  $i++;
  }#foreach
  first();
}#cont

Thanks in advance for your time
FM

[GrandFather]

Is something like this what you are looking for:

use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;

my $main = MainWindow->new ();
my $progressta = $main->Label ()->pack ();

for (1..10)
  {
  $progressta->configure (-text => "Robocopy is now processing $_");
  $main->update ();
  sleep (2);
  }

MainLoop ();

[FM]

Thanks

[graff]

Based on how you described the problem, I'm not sure you've shown us enough code to identify the cause. Either that, or else I don't understand what your problem is.

Is it the case that your "cont()" sub is supposed to be called in response to some user input event (a button click or such)? If so, then the "if($answerbactch...)" condition is supposed to be in a callback routine, to be triggered by the user's input (e.g. as the "-command" parameter for some button widget).

Maybe instead of passing a reference to the sub for the "-command" parameter, you're actually executing the sub when declaring the widget? I really am just guessing here about parts of your code that you have not shown us, but a lot of Tk users tend to get tripped up on this sort of problem.

[Courage]

You need $widget->update call to redraw so user will see your "program" (as you said this:)

Also, "afterIdle" and "after" could be used in your code as well.

[FM]

Thanks. It sure makes a difference...