I don't get your problem. Why do you need to fork?

If you just need to wait between keystrokes (e.g. sending the filename to the window, then wait for some 10 seconds or some other conservative value depending on your local machine configuration, then send a carriage return to "press the OK button"), you can implement that yourself in your perl script.

I once implemented this sendkeys stuff as a tool in VBScript, with a syntax extension to the WSH (Windows Script Host) sendkeys syntax that allows for time delays to be included as escapes in the sendkeys string. Maybe the code helps you. Source of file "sendkeys.vbs" (NOTE: Yes, this is VBScript, not Perl, and yes, yes, I know you don't like VBScript, neither do I):

Option Explicit

' -------------------------------------------------- 
' Setup
' -------------------------------------------------- 

' Essential Variables

Dim ApplicationTitle
Dim ApplicationPath
Dim ApplicationStartupDelay
Dim ApplicationSendkeysDelay
Dim SendkeysTextFile
Dim SendkeysText
Dim Matches
Dim Regex
Dim DelayMatches
Dim DelayRegex

' Sendkeys Escaping Mechanism Detection - matches WSH Sendkeys escapes
+ 

Set Regex = New RegExp
Regex.Pattern = "^(\~|\+.|\^.|\%.|{[^}]+}|{}})" 

' Add Delay Feature to Sendkeys Syntax

Set DelayRegex = New RegExp
DelayRegex.Pattern = "^{DELAY [0-9]+}$"

' Helper Stuff

Dim Wsh
Dim Fso
Dim Tso
Dim i
Dim s
Dim buf

' Arguments and Configuration

If (WScript.Arguments.Count < 3 ) Then PrintUsage()

SendkeysTextFile = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)
ApplicationTitle = WScript.Arguments.Item(1)
ApplicationPath  = WScript.Arguments.Item(2)

' Wrap in quotes for passing to Shell again
ApplicationPath  = """" & ApplicationPath & """"

If (WScript.Arguments.Count > 3 ) Then 
    ApplicationStartupDelay = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)
Else
    ApplicationStartupDelay = 1000
End If 

If (WScript.Arguments.Count > 4 ) Then 
    ApplicationSendkeysDelay = WScript.Arguments.Item(4)
Else
    ApplicationSendkeysDelay = 100
End If 

' Files

Set Wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Tso = Fso.OpenTextFile(SendkeysTextFile)
SendkeysText = Tso.ReadAll()

' -------------------------------------------------- 
' Action
' -------------------------------------------------- 

If (not (Wsh.AppActivate(ApplicationTitle))) Then 
    Wsh.Run(ApplicationPath)
    Wscript.Sleep(ApplicationStartupDelay)
    if (not (Wsh.AppActivate(ApplicationTitle))) Then 
        WScript.Echo("Error: Could not activate application" & _
            ApplicationTitle & " using path " & _
            ApplicationPath)
        WScript.Quit(1)
    End If
End if

For i = 1 To (Len(SendkeysText)) 
    s = Mid(SendkeysText, i, 1)
    set Matches =  Regex.Execute(Mid(SendkeysText, _
                                     i,Len(SendkeysText) - i + 1))
    If (Matches.Count > 0) Then
        buf = Matches.Item(0).Value
        i = i + Matches.Item(0).Length - 1
        ' Wscript.Echo("===> " & buf & " <===") & vbCrLf
        If (DelayRegex.Test(buf)) Then
            set DelayMatches = DelayRegex.Execute(buf)
            Wscript.Sleep(Mid(DelayMatches.Item(0).Value, _
                              Len("{DELAY ") + 1, _
                      (Len(DelayMatches.Item(0).Value) _
                      - (Len("{DELAY ") + 1))))
        Else 
            Wsh.Sendkeys(buf)
        End If
    Else
        Wsh.Sendkeys(s)
    End If
    Wscript.Sleep(ApplicationSendkeysDelay)
Next

Wscript.Quit(0)

' -------------------------------------------------- 
' subs
' -------------------------------------------------- 

Sub PrintUsage
    Dim UsageText
    UsageText = vbCrLf & _
    "Usage: sendkeys <cmd-file> <app-title> <app-path> " & _
    "[startup-delay] [sendkeys-delay]" & vbCrLf & _
    vbCrLf & _
    "Arguments and Options:" & vbCrLf & _
    vbCrLf & _
    "        cmd-file: file containing keys to send " & vbCrLf & _
    "        app-title: window title of target application window" & v
+bCrLf & _
    "        app-path: path to target application" & vbCrLf & _
    "        startup-delay: delay after application startup (in millis
+econds, default 1000)" & vbCrLf & _
    "        sendkeys-delay: delay between keys (in milliseconds, defa
+ult 100)" & vbCrLf & _
    vbCrLf
    WScript.Echo(UsageText)
    WScript.Quit(1)
End Sub
[download]

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com

Good morning again :)

The reason why I need to use fork, is that the OLE $Word->ActiveDocument->PrintOut ... doesn't return until the print-procedure is finished.
So it waits until the Save-to-file window is filled. but while the programm waits for the $Word->ActiveDocument->PrintOut ... procedure to return, it can't fill the Save-to-file window. So I need to implement a child process, which can do that specific job.

Cheers,
physi

-----------------------------------
--the good, the bad and the physi--
-----------------------------------
[download]

To avoid the forking stuff, you could just call another script via system like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

system('start perl -e "sleep 5; print qq(\007)"');
print "Before the beep ...\n";
[download]

The important part here is the "start" thing. It starts your process and then returns to the shell spawning it immediately. Now you just have to wait a sensible amount of time (the "sleep" part above), and the do the sendkeys stuff (the "print" part above), and it should work, if the period to sleep is stable.

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com