Try using Term::ReadKey It has a cleaner interface.

use Term::ReadKey;
use strict; 
while (1) {
    print "input some text: ";
    my $x = ReadLine(0);
    chomp $x;
    print "processing $x ...\n";
    sleep 5;    # try typing something while waiting
    ReadMode 4;    # set to raw mode
    while (defined ReadKey(-1)) {}; # eats up keys in buffer 
    ReadMode 0;    # set to normal mode
}
[download]

--
flounder