$data = tie( %data, 'Win32::MMF::Shareable', 'data', { timeout => 60 } );
if( $data->{error} ) { die( “can't tie data: ” . $data->{errstr} ) }  # maybe? or just return undef

$data{min} = 0;
$data{max} = 500;
$data{current} = 0;

$data->debug() if $debug_flag;

# each process must do blocks of 10 at a time
{
  $data->lock();  # timeout 60 seconds

  for( $data{end} = $data{current} + 10; $data{current} < $data{end}; $data{current}++ )
  {
    # do job number $data{current}
  }

  $data->unlock();
}