While POE is the benchmark for many when it comes to event-based programming in Perl, it should be noted that there are other module alternatives which facilitate this programming style - In particular, I have been using the Event module quite extensively of late and found it to be extremely flexible and direct in its operations. The situation where I have been using it too (RTSP delivery for digital video-on-demand), using POE with all of its dependencies and its operational overhead, may have proven problematic. If you do decide to take a look at Event, make sure you also take a look at the tutorial PDF file in the distribution in addition to the module POD.