I'm matching against text typed in by the user.. It's read and passed on like this:

*imagine IO::Socket, IO::Select code here*
..
$line = <STDIN>;
chomp($line);
parse_command($line);
..

sub parse_command
{
    my ($data) = @_;
    ..
    if($data =~ /^tell (.+?)\@(.+?) (.+)$/)
    {
        @args = ($2, 'tell', $1, $3);
    }

    .. 
    if(@args)
    {
       $i2->send(@args); 
    }
}
..
sub send
{
    my ($me, $dest, $request, @params) = @_;
    ..
    if($dest ne 'all' && !defined($testmud = $me->getMudName($dest)))
    ...
}
[download]

Does that answer the question, more or less? ;)

C.