Checking for keyboard input without halting process

From: Zikester (ikeb_at_storm.ca)
Date: 04/29/04 

To: beginners@perl.org
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 02:53:26 -0400

I've racked my brain for an answer to this one. Probably real simple.....

I'd like to run a process reatedly until entering a character on the
keyboard (other than ^C). When the character is entered the process would
complete some final tasks and exit the program.

do {
    # a process
$Keyboard_Input = (check_for_input);
} until ($Keyboard_Input);
# some final tasks

I've tried to use the standard input file <STDIN> without success.
I've tried
$Keyboard_Input = <STDIN>; which just halts the script until the Enter key
is pressed.
$Keyboard_Input = eof (STDIN); which halts until the Enter key is pressed
and then returns a null character thereafter
$Keyboard_Input = tell (STDIN); which returns a '0' character even if the
Enter key is pressed,

OK, so what am I missing here? Do I need to use something other than the
Standard Input File structure?

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