Hi,

I have an (long running) application, for which I now want to build a simple GUI, enabling the script to be used even by less experienced users.

Below example demonstrates, what is not happening. I want to capture the output of the main function of the script (printer in the example below) into two separate ROText widgets.

I also want to keep the application "alive" while printer is working - the script below doesn't react on any Event.

Adding $mw->update() is not having the effect I want.

Any hint is appreciated. The script should work on Linux/Unix as well as with (strawberry) Perl on WinXP.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Tk;
require Tk::ROText;

$|++;

{# Main
    my $mw = MainWindow->new();
    $mw->Label(-text => 'STDOUT')->pack(-side => 'top', -anchor => 'w'
+);
    my $ro_out_text = $mw->Scrolled('ROText', -scrollbars => 'osoe',
                                    -background => 'white',
                    -width => 50,
                    -height => 15,
                   )->pack(-side => 'top');
    tie (*STDOUT, 'Tk::ROText', $ro_out_text);

    $mw->Label(-text => 'STDERR')->pack(-side => 'top', -anchor => 'w'
+);
    my $ro_err_text = $mw->Scrolled('ROText', -scrollbars => 'osoe',
                                    -background => 'white',
                    -width => 50,
                    -height => 15,
                   )->pack(-side => 'top');
    tie (*STDERR, 'Tk::ROText', $ro_err_text);
    
    $mw->update();

    $mw->after(10, [\&printer, $mw]);
    $mw->repeat(50, sub { $mw->update();});
    
    MainLoop;
}

sub printer
{
    my $mw = shift @_;
    my $errcount = 0;
    my $count = 0;
  
    
    while (1) {
        if (rand() % 2){
            $count++;
            print "STDOUT: Count = $count\n";
        } else {
            $errcount++;
            print {*STDERR} "STDERR: Count = $errcount\n";
        }
    sleep (rand() % 500 + 500);
    }
}
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Thanks a lot in advance!

EDIT

Here is a working example:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Carp;
use IO::Pipe;

{# Main
    if ((scalar @ARGV == 1) and ($ARGV[0] eq '--no-gui')) {
        printer();
    }
    elsif ((scalar @ARGV >= 1) and ($ARGV[0] ne '--no-gui')) {
        print "USAGE: $0 [--no-gui]\n";
        exit 1;
    }
    
    my $err_pipe = IO::Pipe->new() or croak "Could not create pipe: $!
+";
    my $out_pipe = IO::Pipe->new() or croak "Could not create pipe: $!
+";

    if (my $pid = fork ()) {
    # Child
        tk_init($err_pipe, $out_pipe);
    } else {
    # Father
        croak "Could not fork: $!" unless defined $pid;
        $err_pipe->writer();
        $out_pipe->writer();
      
        open STDERR, ">&" . $err_pipe->fileno() or croak "Could not re
+direct: $!";
        open STDOUT, ">&" . $out_pipe->fileno() or croak "Could not re
+direct: $!";
        printer(); 
    }
}

sub tk_init {
    use Tk;
    use Tk::ROText;

    my $err_pipe = shift @_;
    my $out_pipe = shift @_;

    $err_pipe->reader();
    $err_pipe->blocking(0);
    $out_pipe->reader();
    $out_pipe->blocking(0);

    my $mw = MainWindow->new();
    $mw->Label(-text => 'STDOUT')->pack(-side => 'top', -anchor => 'w'
+);
    my $ro_out_text = $mw->Scrolled('ROText', -scrollbars => 'osoe',
                                    -background => 'white',
                    -width => 50,
                    -height => 15,
                   )->pack(-side => 'top');

    $mw->Label(-text => 'STDERR')->pack(-side => 'top', -anchor => 'w'
+);
    my $ro_err_text = $mw->Scrolled('ROText', -scrollbars => 'osoe',
                                    -background => 'white',
                    -width => 50,
                    -height => 15,
                   )->pack(-side => 'top');
    
    $mw->repeat(250, [\&update_text_widget, $ro_out_text, $out_pipe]);
    $mw->repeat(250, [\&update_text_widget, $ro_err_text, $err_pipe]);
    $mw->update();
    MainLoop();
}

sub update_text_widget {
  my $widget = shift @_;
  my $handle = shift @_;

  # slurp data
  my @in = <$handle>;
  my $str = join('', @in);
  $widget->insert('end', $str);
  return;
}

sub printer {
    use Time::HiRes qw(usleep);
    my $errcount = 0;
    my $count = 0;
  
    
    while (1) {
    if (rand(2) % 2 == 1) {
            $count++;
        print "STDOUT: Count = $count\n";
            
    } else {
            $errcount++;
            print {*STDERR} "STDERR: Count = $errcount\n";
        }
    usleep (rand(500000) + 500000);
    }
}
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