the code is too huge to include here.

Simplify it. That is, make a simplified version of it for testing. Just the single widget that displays your changing data, the timer routine that processes inbound packets and the updateDisplay() routine. This would be invaluable to you for testing the maximum throughput you can expect of Tk and your tcp code.

Well, even the simplified version will be quite long. I have described the entire thing here, but may be it is not sufficient for you to guess.
FYI, I am giving the update gui routine here, which is getting called from the server function as and when it has read some data from the socket.


sub updateGui {

    my $self = shift;
    my $data = shift;
    

    my $hlist    = $self->{jobTree};
    my @cellInfo = split( /\s/, $data );
    my $font     = "{helvetica} -12 bold";

    my $style1 = $self->{displaybaseObj}->getItemStyle(
        $hlist, 'text',
        -foreground => 'black',
        -anchor     => 'nw',
        -background => "$cellInfo[2]",
        -font       => $font
    );

    my $num1     = int( rand(2) ) + 1;
    my $num2     = int( rand(2) ) + 0;
    my $subnode1 = $cellInfo[0] . "." . $num1;
    my $subnode2 = $cellInfo[0] . "." . $num1 . "." . "0" . "." . $num
+2;

    $hlist->itemConfigure(
        $subnode1, 2,
        -text  => "$cellInfo[1]",
        -style => $style1
    );
    $hlist->itemConfigure(
        $subnode2, 2,
        -text  => "$cellInfo[1]",
        -style => $style1
    );

}
[download]

The $data to this routine is like "500 running green" i.e a gui row , some status of that and a colour separated by single space. $hlist is the Tree widget which just a bit extension of the built in HList.pm Tk module.

Let me see , if I can post a very simplified version of it.

I am just including a very very simplified code which is just one perl file only. Please change the repeat frequency to test it. The gui would show better performance if the repeat frequency is increased to 1sec , currently it is 1ms only.
My requirement is :

1. what is the reason for the gui to get hung when we are trying to change some 100 rows on it every 1 ms . Can not perl tk handle this ? is this a limitation ?

2. is their any other mechanism to make it work, provided i will repeat it every 1 ms and would try to change 100 rows of it randomly.



use Tk;
use Tk::HList;
use Time::HiRes qw/usleep/;

my $mw = MainWindow->new();

my $hlistframe = $mw->Frame()->pack( -fill => 'both', -expand => 1 );

my $font = "{helvetica} -12 bold";
my $hl   = $hlistframe->Scrolled(
    'HList',
    -scrollbars => 'ose',
    -columns    => 7,
    -header     => 1,
    #-height   => 10,
    -width   => 50,
    -command => sub { print "test\n"; },
)->pack( -fill => 'both', -expand => 1 );

my $num = $hl->Label( -text => "Number", -anchor => 'w', -font => $fon
+t );
$hl->headerCreate( 0, -itemtype => 'window', -widget => $num );

my $name = $hl->Label( -text => "ID", -anchor => 'w', -font => $font )
+;
$hl->headerCreate( 1, -itemtype => 'window', -widget => $name );
my $DOB = $hl->Label( -text => "Job", -anchor => 'w', -font => $font )
+;
$hl->headerCreate( 2, -itemtype => 'window', -widget => $DOB );

my $Address = $hl->Label( -text => "status", -anchor => 'w', -font => 
+$font );
$hl->headerCreate( 3, -itemtype => 'window', -widget => $Address );

my $style1 = $hl->ItemStyle(
    'text',
    -selectforeground => 'black',
    -anchor           => 'nw',
    -background       => 'green',
    -font             => $font
);

my $style2 = $hl->ItemStyle(
    'text',
    -selectforeground => 'black',
    -anchor           => 'nw',
    -background       => 'red',
    -font             => $font
);

my $style3 = $hl->ItemStyle(
    'text',
    -selectforeground => 'black',
    -anchor           => 'nw',
    -background       => 'blue',
    -font             => $font
);

sub populate {

    my $path = 0;

    foreach my $entry ( 1 .. 100 ) {
        insertData( $path, $entry );
        $path++;
    }

}

&populate();

sub insertData {
    my ( $path, $entry ) = @_;

    $hl->add($path);

    #    print "path $path \n";
    $hl->itemCreate( $path, 0, -text => "$path" );     # , -style => $
+style1);
    $hl->itemCreate( $path, 1, -text => "someid" );    # , -style => $
+style1);
    $hl->itemCreate( $path, 2, -text => "test" );      #, -style => $s
+tyle1);
    $hl->itemCreate( $path, 3, -text => "running", -style => $style1 )
+;

}

$mw->repeat( 1, \&changeItem );    
my $flag;

sub changeItem {
    my %flag;

    foreach ( 1 .. 100 ) {
        my $randRow = int( rand(20) );
        print "randRow $randRow \n";
        if ( $flag{$randRow} ) {

            $hl->itemConfigure(
                $randRow, 3,
                -text  => "pending",
                -style => $style2
            );
            $hl->itemConfigure(
                $randRow, 3,
                -text  => "waiting",
                -style => $style2
            );
            $flag{$randRow} = 0;
            print "if flag ", $flag{$randRow}, "\n";
        }
        else {
            print "else flag 0\n";
            $hl->itemConfigure(
                $randRow, 3,
                -text  => "finished",
                -style => $style3
            );
            $hl->itemConfigure(
                $randRow, 3,
                -text  => "aborted",
                -style => $style3
            );
            $flag{$randRow} = 1;
            print "else flag ", $flag{$randRow}, " \n";
        }

        #usleep(100);
        #sleep 2 ;
    }
}

MainLoop;
[download]

As others have recommended: Simplify; create an example which illustrates the problem with fewer than 20 lines; (and, p.s. - don't whine).

It's an extremely rare problem in this class that can't be duplicated without more than a few lines of code; in any case, the exercise of creating a brief example may illuminate your problem for you.

My 'oops': intended as first reply to request (at Re^2: Perl tk gui hangs when large data thrown to it) for an email address.