Great! I mentioned the DoOneEvent method, because in your code, it seemed that you needed to do a while(1){}, or run a second event loop. When you try to run 2 (or more) event-loop based programs, only 1 event loop can be in control, and you need to manually "pump" the othe loop(s) with DoOneEvent (or whatever their system calls it).

In Tk the MainLoop is

   sub MainLoop
        unless ($inMainLoop) {
            local $inMainLoop = 1;
            while (Tk::MainWindow->Count) {
                DoOneEvent(0);
            }
        }
    }
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So if you can't use Tk::MainLoop in your program to be the controlling event loop, you can place the DoOneEvent in a timer, or a while(1) loop and effectively keep Tk active and responding.

But it sounds like you are on your way with threads, and that is your best option.