I've got fairly heavy computations which I fork off. And in http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=494032 it says that its better to use real procs instead of threads on heavy things.

I've got a neighbour who boasted for years that she didn't have a mobile phone: didn't want one; didn't need one; they were just pointless technology, just for kids to waste money on ringtone downloads; another of modern life's annoyances to disturb her in restaurants and theatres.

Turns out she has been hyperoptic for years and refuses to wear glasses. Then someone bought her a mobile with large, clear buttons and she's never without it.

Perl's threads are imperfect, heavy and require a particular way of working to get the best out of them. But if you need to share data between contexts of execution, they are usually far easier to program and use than the alternatives. They do not lend themselves well to encapsulation, but for many applications that doesn't matter because the infrastructure code required is minimal.

If you have a brief description of the application, I'd be happy to suggest/post a starting point using threads and you can decide for yourself whether they are suitable for your purposes.