use Win32::OLE;
use IO::String;
use Win32::Console;

my $objDatabase;

# use existing instance if Act is already running
eval {$objDatabase = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('ACTOLE.DATABASE')};
die "ACT not installed" if $@;

unless (defined $objDatabase) {
  $objDatabase = Win32::OLE->new('ACTOLE.DATABASE', sub {$_[0]->Close;})
            or die "Can't start ACT";
}

# duplicate STDOUT and STDIN because of a bug in ACT
# this only works for STDOUT, not STDIN
open(TEMPOUT, ">&STDOUT") || die("Cannot duplicate STDOUT: $!");
close STDOUT;

# this one doesn't work
# my $fake_stdin = "b\na\nd\nthing\n";
# tie *STDIN, 'IO::String', \$fake_stdin;

# this one doesn't work, either
my $STDIN = Win32::Console->new(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
$STDIN->WriteInput(1, TRUE, 3, 1, 1, 0, 0);

# this line is the culprit
# it waits for three keypresses
$objDatabase->Open('C:\chris\contacts.DBF');

# restore STDIN
open(STDOUT, ">&TEMPOUT") || die("Cannot restore STDOUT: $!");
close TEMPOUT;

# after this, it works fine