...I'll try to make it short. Forgive my newbism. Since I made chat server allowing multiple clients, I wanted to make a GUI for the client. The GUI is in Tk and the client is expected to put the address and their name in the fields and then launch a connection from a button... this loads a subroutine which I want to use to take the strings from the fields, create a socket, recieve messages constantly and insert it to the beginning of the Listbox. Unfortuneately, when I do this it just freezes because it's only focusing on this routine and no messages are currently sent. here's the code: 
use Tk;
use IO::Socket::INET;

$er1 = "Connection was not yet made...";
$er2 = "No current sockets to close...";

$main = MainWindow->new();
$main->title('Conors Chat Client');
$main->minsize(50, 5);
$main->configure(-background=>'black');

$top = $main->Frame(-background => 'black')->pack(-side=>'left', -fill
+=>'x');
$options = $main->Frame(-background => 'black')->pack(-side=>'right', 
+pady=>8, padx=>8);

$mess = $top->Frame(-background => 'black')->pack(-side=>'left', pady=
+>8, padx => 8);

$box = $mess->Listbox(-relief => 'sunken',
                                 -width => 50,
                                 -height => 5,
                                 -setgrid => 'yes', -background=>'Dark
+ Red');
$scroll = $mess->Scrollbar(-command => ['yview', $box]);
$box->configure(-yscrollcommand => ['set', $scroll]);
$box->pack(-side => 'left', -fill => 'both', -expand => 'yes');
$scroll->pack(-side => 'left', -fill => 'y');
@hello = ("Welcome to Chat Client V1.0");
foreach (@hello){
    $box->insert('end', $_);
}
$msg1 = $mess->Entry(-width=>8, -background =>'Dark Red')->pack(-side=
+>'bottom');
$mess->Button(-text=> 'Send', -background=>'Dark Red', -command=> sub{
+sender($msg1)})->pack(-side=>'bottom');

$options->Label(-text => 'Server Host:', -background => 'Dark Red')->p
+ack;
$serverip = $options->Entry(-width=>8, -background =>'Dark red')->pack
+;

$options->Label(-text => 'Name:', -background => 'Dark Red')->pack;
$name = $options->Entry(-width=>8, -background => 'Dark red')->pack;

$options->Button(-text => 'Start Connection', 
            -background => 'Dark red', 
            -command => sub{connection($serverip, $name)})->pack;
$options->Button(-text => 'Stop Connection', -background => 'Dark red'
+, -command => sub{endconnect})->pack;

$options->Button(-text => 'Exit', -background => 'dark red', -command 
+=> sub{exit})->pack(-side=> 'bottom');
MainLoop;

sub connection {
    ($serverip, $name) = @_;

    $servadd = $serverip->get;
    $name1 = $name->get;

    @serv = split(/:/, $servadd);
    print "Server: $serv[0] and port: $serv[1]";

<b>    $sock = new IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr=>$serv[0], PeerPort=
+>$serv[1],Proto=>'tcp') or die "Can't Connect!!!";
    while($sock){
        $sock->recv($msg, 100);
        if($msg ne ''){
            $box->insert('active', $msg); 
        }

    }</b>
}

sub endconnect {

    if(defined ($sock)){
        close ($sock);
    } else {
        $box->insert('active', $er2);
    }
}
sub sender {
    $mess1 = $msg1->get;
    if(defined ($sock) and msg1 ne ''){
        $sock->send("$name1: $mess1");
        $box->insert('active', $name1.':'.$mess1);
    } else {
        $box->insert('active', $er1);
    }
}

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I ask of a solution to have the receiving of messages run in the background

In reply to Tk and socket question by un be-knoweth

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