🎨 Palette: Improve terminal UI responsiveness and visuals

.Jules/palette.md

@@ -6,3 +6,7 @@
 
 ## 2026-01-09 - Terminal I/O and Blocking
 **Learning:** Standard terminal I/O is line-buffered by default. For real-time games, it's essential to use non-canonical mode (raw mode) to capture keypresses immediately. Also, internal journals should be kept clean if they are to be included in the repo.
+
+## 2026-01-10 - Tactile Feedback in Terminal UIs
+**Learning:** Terminal applications can feel sluggish if the UI only updates on timer ticks. Triggering a UI refresh immediately upon user input makes the application feel significantly more responsive and tactile.
+**Action:** Decouple UI rendering from the main tick loop and ensure input events trigger an immediate redraw of relevant components.

.github/workflows/rust.yml → .github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -1,25 +1,20 @@
-name: Rust
+name: C++ CI
 
 on:
   push:
     branches: [ "main" ]
   pull_request:
     branches: [ "main" ]
 
-env:
-  CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always
-
 jobs:
   build:
-
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
     - name: Build
-      run: cargo build --verbose
-    - name: Run tests
-      run: cargo test --verbose
+      run: make
 
-      permissions:
-  contents: read
+    - name: Run Tests
+      run: make test

Makefile

@@ -21,9 +21,13 @@ $(TARGET): $(SRCS)
 run: $(TARGET)
 	./$(TARGET)
 
+# Test the game
+test: $(TARGET)
+	echo "q" | ./$(TARGET) | grep "Thanks for playing!"
+
 # Clean up build artifacts
 clean:
 	rm -f $(TARGET)
 
 # Phony targets
-.PHONY: all run clean
+.PHONY: all run clean test

src/main.cpp

@@ -1,9 +1,22 @@
 #include <iostream>
 #include <chrono>
-#include <thread>
 #include <poll.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <termios.h>
+#include <algorithm>
+
+// Colors
+#define RESET        "\033[0m"
+#define BOLD_GREEN   "\033[1;32m"
+#define BOLD_RED     "\033[1;31m"
+#define BOLD_BLUE    "\033[1;34m"
+#define BOLD_YELLOW  "\033[1;33m"
+
+void updateUI(int score, bool hardMode) {
+    std::cout << "\r" << BOLD_GREEN << "Score: " << score << RESET
+              << (hardMode ? BOLD_RED " [FAST]  " RESET : BOLD_BLUE " [NORMAL]  " RESET)
+              << "            " << std::flush;
+}
 
 int main() {
     struct termios oldt, newt;
@@ -13,29 +26,36 @@ int main() {
     tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &newt);
 
     int score = 0; bool hardMode = false; char input;
-    std::cout << "==========================\n      SPEED CLICKER\n==========================\n"
-              << "Controls:\n [h] Toggle Hard Mode (10x Speed!)\n [q] Quit Game\n [Any key] Click!\n\n";
+    std::cout << BOLD_YELLOW << "==========================\n      SPEED CLICKER\n==========================\n" << RESET
+              << BOLD_YELLOW << "Controls:\n" << RESET
+              << " [h] Toggle Hard Mode (10x Speed!)\n [q] Quit Game\n [Any key] Click!\n\n";
 
     struct pollfd fds[1] = {{STDIN_FILENO, POLLIN, 0}};
     auto last_tick = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+    updateUI(score, hardMode);
+
     while (true) {
-        int timeout = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
-        if (poll(fds, 1, 0) > 0) {
-            if (read(STDIN_FILENO, &input, 1) <= 0 || input == 'q') break;
-            if (input == 'h') {
-                hardMode = !hardMode;
-                std::cout << (hardMode ? "\n[HARD MODE] Speed x10!\n" : "\n[NORMAL MODE]\n");
-            } else score++;
-        }
+        int base_timeout = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
         auto now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
         auto elapsed = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(now - last_tick).count();
-        if (elapsed >= timeout) {
-            score++; last_tick = now;
-            std::cout << "Score: " << score << (hardMode ? " [FAST]  " : " [NORMAL]  ") << "\r" << std::flush;
+        int remaining = std::max(0, static_cast<int>(base_timeout - elapsed));
+
+        if (poll(fds, 1, remaining) > 0) {
+            if (read(STDIN_FILENO, &input, 1) <= 0 || input == 'q') break;
+            if (input == 'h') hardMode = !hardMode;
+            else score++;
+            updateUI(score, hardMode);
+        }
+
+        now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+        elapsed = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(now - last_tick).count();
+        if (elapsed >= base_timeout) {
+            score++;
+            last_tick = now;
+            updateUI(score, hardMode);
         }
-        std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(10));
     }
     tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &oldt);
-    std::cout << "\nFinal Score: " << score << "\nThanks for playing!\n";
+    std::cout << BOLD_GREEN << "\nFinal Score: " << score << RESET << "\nThanks for playing!\n";
     return 0;
 }