while() {

    eval {
        alarm(5);
        print "\n\n5 seconds main input: ";
        chomp(my $input = <STDIN>);
        alarm(0);
    };

    if ($@ =~ /BLAH/) {
        print "\n\nno input running....\n\n";
        $engine->run();
    }

    if ($@ =~ /TIMEOUT/) {
        print "\n\nOops, still using ti handler...\n\n";
    }

    sub timed_out {
        die "BLAH";
    }
}