I've loaded up the code, and added a couple of traces and fixed a minor bug. You're having some interaction problems with your console I/O. It works ... sort of. I've run out of time, so I'll give you back the code that I've tried, and show you the symptoms.

First, I added some traces, so I could see what was happening--Rather than wait for successful console input, I sent a message on both the client and server side so I could see that they both sent the expected messages. Then I discovered the minor bug: you were using $so instead of $client in the server.

Once I did that, the code started almost working. Basically, I could type some text on the server side, and it would appear on the client side. Similarly, I could type text on the client side and it would appear on the server side. But you have to alternate client & server, as successive messages aren't sent until it receives one from the other side.

Here's the slightly modified server:

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

use threads;
use IO::Socket;
my $so = new IO::Socket::INET(LocalPort => '1300',
                                 Proto => 'tcp',
                                Listen => 10,
                                 Reuse => 1,);

my $client;

die "Socket Error: $!\n" unless $so;

sub start_thread1 {
        print "thread1 started\n";
        while(my $get=<$client>) {
                print "client : $get";
        }
        print "thread1 ended\n";
}

sub start_thread {
        print "thread started\n";
        print $client "OK ... whaddaya want?\n";
        while (my $msg = <STDIN>) {
                print $client $msg;
        }
        print "thread ended\n";
}

while ($client = $so->accept()) {
        my $thread  = threads->create("start_thread");
        my $thread1  = threads->create("start_thread1");
        # This message appears to go nowhere ... we should use $client
+!
        print $so "connected ... whatcha want?\n";
        print "connected\n";
        $thread->join();
}
[download]

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

use threads;
use IO::Socket;
my $so = new IO::Socket::INET(   PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1',
                                 PeerPort => 1300,
                                 Proto => 'tcp',
                                 Reuse => 1,);

die "Socket Error: $!\n" unless $so;

   my $thread  = threads->create(\&start_thread);
     my $thread1  = threads->create(\&start_thread1);

sub start_thread {
        print "thread\n";
        while (my $txt=<$so>) {
                print "server : $txt";
        }
        print "endthread\n";
}

sub start_thread1 {
        print "thread1\n";
        print $so "Client connected!\n";
        while (my $msg = <STDIN>) {
                print $so "$msg";
        }
        print $so "Client disconnected!\n";
        print "thread1end\n";
}

$thread->join();
$thread1->join();
[download]

Unfortunately, I don't know why they're blocking. I don't use threads, so there are several possibilities: Blocking in the IO::Socket::INET module, blocking on your console I/O, console I/O interaction with threads, and others that I can't think of.

You might want to dig through perlipc and read perlfunc for more clues. I was expecting to see read and write calls in your code, so when I initially saw it, I was wondering how on earth it was supposed to work. I also didn't see any accept() calls, but apparently the IO::Socket::INET module takes care of that since I clearly see a connection and traffic taking place.

If I get an opportunity, I'll check into it some more after work. (Unless, of course, you've already got it solved by then....)

...roboticus

OK ... I'll load it up on my machine and give it a go. I've not used IO::Socket before, and I really should learn it.

...roboticus