#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

$| = 1;
my @spinner = ('|', '/', '-', '\\');
my $bigscale = 100_000;
my $scale = 100;
my $index = 0;

  # replace the following two lines 
  # with a loop appropriate to the project
  my $in_loop = 1;
  while ($in_loop) {

    # Do work.
    print $spinner[($index++ / $scale) % 4], "\b";
    print '.' unless ($index % $bigscale);

    # And for completeness, for demonstration purposes...
    $in_loop = 0 if ($index > (($scale / 2) * $bigscale));
  }