🎨 Palette: Improve game responsiveness and UI cleanliness

.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 CLI
+**Learning:** For terminal-based interactions, immediate UI updates upon keypress are crucial for "tactile" feel. Decoupling display updates from fixed game ticks and using `poll()` with dynamic timeouts provides a much smoother experience than busy-waiting or fixed sleep intervals.
+**Action:** Always trigger a UI refresh immediately after processing user input in CLI games.

.github/workflows/rust.yml → .github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -1,22 +1,18 @@
-name: Rust
+name: C++ Build
 
 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
+      run: make
     - name: Run tests
-      run: cargo test --verbose
+      run: make test

Makefile

@@ -25,5 +25,9 @@ run: $(TARGET)
 clean:
 	rm -f $(TARGET)
 
+# Test the game
+test: $(TARGET)
+	echo "q" | ./$(TARGET) | grep "Final Score"
+
 # Phony targets
-.PHONY: all run clean
+.PHONY: all run clean test

src/main.cpp

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include <iostream>
+#include <algorithm>
 #include <chrono>
 #include <thread>
 #include <poll.h>
@@ -19,21 +20,20 @@ int main() {
     struct pollfd fds[1] = {{STDIN_FILENO, POLLIN, 0}};
     auto last_tick = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
     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++;
-        }
         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 period = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
+        int timeout = std::max(0, period - static_cast<int>(elapsed));
+
+        if (poll(fds, 1, timeout) > 0) {
+            if (read(STDIN_FILENO, &input, 1) <= 0 || input == 'q') break;
+            if (input == 'h') hardMode = !hardMode;
+            else score++;
+        } else {
+            score++;
+            last_tick = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
         }
-        std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(10));
+        std::cout << "Score: " << score << (hardMode ? " [FAST]   " : " [NORMAL] ") << "\r" << std::flush;
     }
     tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &oldt);
     std::cout << "\nFinal Score: " << score << "\nThanks for playing!\n";