I don't use MSwindows, but there probably are hacks to get around the problem, like using sysread to read 1 byte at a time, until nothing is there, or see Non-blocking Reads from Pipe Filehandle

You can use the SuperSearch here for many examples of using Open3, but remember, no select is available to you... so you need a workaround. See Perl/Tk App and Interprocess Communication. If you are using an event-loop system, you can setup a timer to repeatedly read the pipe until no bytes are there. Also see " perldoc -q 'capture STDERR' "

How difficult do you think it would be to try and work with IPC::OPen3, especially since I'm a beginner? I really need to get this done this week and its seeming impossible for me to do since I don't have alot of Perl experience. Thanks for any help, J

Using IPC::Open3, in it's simplest form, is very easy; BUT your windows command may be problem-prone.. all you can do is give it a quick try. Here is a very simple usage for doing a fast go/no-go test. See if you can print to your command, then collect all output. Uncomment the while(1){} code block, if you want to loop. Also note the sysread method, in case your <> read hangs. So give this a try, and report back your code and any problems you encounter.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use IPC::Open3;

my $pid = open3(\*WRITE, \*READ, \*ERROR,"your_command");
if( ! $pid ){ die "$!\n";}

#my $pid = open3(\*WRITE, \*READ,0,"your_command");
#if \*ERROR is false, STDERR is sent to STDOUT 

#while(1){

print "Enter a string to evaluate\n";
chomp(my $query = <STDIN>);

#send query to command
print WRITE "$query\n";

#give small time to output
select(undef,undef,undef,.5); #half second delay

#get the answer from command
chomp(my $answer = <READ>);
print "$query = $answer\n";
# you may need something with sysread, if <READ> hangs
# my $bytes_read = sysread(READ, my $buf, 1024);
# print "$query = $buf\n";

#get the error from command
chomp(my $error = <ERROR>);
print "$query error = $error\n";

#}
waitpid($pid, 1);
# It is important to waitpid on your child process,  
# otherwise zombies could be created.
[download]

---

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth Remember How Lucky You Are

Thanks I'll have a look at them. I suspect being a novice isn't gonna help me much :)