Essentially, you'd need to service both message queues concurrently. Tk has calls that allow you to service it's queue without entering MainLoop, but there probably isn't any effective way to call them once you've entered the native control's dispatch loop.

It would be worth trying invoking the ShBrowseForFolder() api from within a thread:

use threads;

asynch {
    ShBrowseForFolder( ... );
}->detach;
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That should allow the main thread to run the Tk MainLoop concurrently with the Native controls dispatch loop.

It would be worth trying invoking the ShBrowseForFolder() api from within a thread

that was one of my intial approaches,which works perfectly painting wise,but the app breaks shortly after since Tk is not thread safe

but the app breaks shortly after since Tk is not thread safe

Then only use Tk from one thread. Really, it works just fine.

If you'd care to post your working but crashing code, I'll show you how to stop it from crashing.

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

since Tk is not thread safe

It doesn't matter if you only load Tk in one thread, see BrowserUks replies to Tk + threads and Tk and Threads

What keeps you from using Tks Dir chooser?

because I would loose functionality such as the ability to 'make a new folder' available from within the MFC control,shown here pic2

Besides the specific control,I would like to leverage possible alternate or more rich functionality from other native controls

Have you considered using Wx?

Wx::DirDialog will give you the native style directory chooser, with the new folder option.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Gtk2 '-init';

my $window = Gtk2::Window->new;
$window->set_title("File Selector");
$window->signal_connect( destroy => sub { Gtk2->main_quit; } );

my $button = Gtk2::Button->new("Select");
$button->signal_connect( clicked => \&dir_selector );
$window->add($button);
$window->show_all();

Gtk2->main;

sub dir_selector {
    my $d = Gtk2::FileChooserDialog->new(
        'Choose a Directory',
         $window, 'select-folder',
        "Cancel" => "cancel",
        "OK"     => "accept",
    );

    my $response = $d->run();
    if ( "accept" eq $response ) {
        print $d->get_filename(), "\n";
    }
    $d->destroy;
}
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