Hello jeremywakeman

I am a bit stuck with your question:

It seems like I should be looking to implement an application layer protocol to transfer data (text) between server and client

By this you mean files or text input?

If you mean text input there are many examples online that you can setup a TCP client/server. A few years ago I tried my version (how to control segmented messages in TCP chat client) take a look if this is something that you are looking for.

I think the code is working just fine if not let me know and I will update it.

If in any case I have understand clearly your question, update it and I will try to elaborate more.

Update: Use <readmore></readmore> from top to bottom of your code so you can reduce the size of the scrolling page output. ;)

Update2: I remembered even more, I have implemented a "telnet behavior" client/server if this is something that you are looking for I have it on my github repo (thanos1983/Perl5-TCP-Chat-Server-Multiple-Clients), I have not updated the code for years but I think it should work just fine.

Hope this helps.