From the POD for Win32::Pipe:

If someone is waiting on a Read and the other end terminates then you will wait for one REALLY long time! (If anyone has an idea on how I can detect the termination of the other end let me know!)

All pipes are blocking. I am considering using threads and callbacks into Perl to perform async IO but this may be too much for my time stress. ;)

By splitting the problem into two processes that communicate via a blocking pipe, you've just recreated the original problem. Twice.

Instead of a single process that has the problem of servicing a (non-blocking) keyboard and a blocking socket, you now have two processes.

• One has to try and concurrently service a (non-blocking) keyboard and a blocking pipe.
• The other has to try and service a blocking socket and a blocking pipe.

Sockets can be set non-blocking, pipes (via Win32::Pipe) cannot.