Hi, this works on linux, where I start a thread after 4 seconds, then stop it after 8. It uses Glib.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Glib;
use Glib qw/TRUE FALSE/;
use threads;
use threads::shared;

my $count = 0;
my $thread;
my $die:shared = 0;

my $main_loop = Glib::MainLoop->new;
#test timer       
my $timer  = Glib::Timeout->add (1000, \&timer_callback, undef, 1 );

#timer to start thread after 4 seconds
my $timer1  = Glib::Timeout->add (4000, \&timer1_callback, undef, 1 );

#timer to stop thread after 8 seconds
my $timer2  = Glib::Timeout->add (8000, \&timer2_callback, undef, 1 );


$main_loop->run;

sub timer_callback{
     $count++;
     print "$count\n";
     return 1;
}

sub timer1_callback{
     $thread = threads->new(\&work);
     return 0;  #run once only
}

sub timer2_callback{
     $die = 1;
     $thread->join;
     return 0;  #run once only
}


sub work{
    
    $|++; 
    
    while(1){
         foreach my $num (1..1000){
                
                if($die){return}
                     
                 Glib::Idle->add(
               sub{
                print "\t\t$num\n";
            return FALSE;
           });
                
            select(undef,undef,undef, .1);

         }
       
    }
}

__END__ 

#my $timer  = Glib::Timeout->add ($interval, $callback, $data=undef, $
+pri-
#      ority=G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT)

#    * $interval (integer) number of milliseconds
#    * $callback (subroutine)
#    * $data (scalar)
#    * $priority (integer)

#    Run $callback every $interval milliseconds until $callback return
+s
#    false.  Returns a source id which may be used with
#   "Glib::Source->remove".  Note that a mainloop must be active for
#    the timeout to execute.
[download]

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.