Time::HiRes includes ualarm(), so no need to roll your own.

For WinNT, I was going to relunctantly suggest Win32::Console but it doesn't seem to offer this like I thought it did. (Reluctantly, not because it is a yucky module (it is well made), but because I hate resorting to such OS-specific modules -- and it only works for reading from consoles.) I'd love to hear of a more portable solution that works on NT.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")