🎨 Palette: Improve input responsiveness and tactile feedback

.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.
+
+## 2026-02-03 - Tactile Feedback in CLI
+**Learning:** For interactive CLI tools, immediate visual feedback on keypress is crucial for a "tactile" feel. Decoupling the UI refresh from a fixed tick rate and triggering it on every input event makes the application feel significantly more responsive.
+**Action:** Always ensure input handlers call the UI render logic immediately after updating the state, rather than waiting for the next game loop iteration.

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

@@ -1,22 +1,18 @@
-name: Rust
+name: C++ Build and Test
 
 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)
 
+# Run tests
+test: $(TARGET)
+	echo "q" | ./$(TARGET) | grep "Final Score:"
+
 # Phony targets
-.PHONY: all run clean
+.PHONY: all run clean test

src/main.cpp

@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 #include <poll.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <termios.h>
+#include <algorithm>
+
+void render_ui(int score, bool hardMode) {
+    std::cout << "\rScore: " << score << (hardMode ? " [HARD MODE]   " : " [NORMAL MODE] ") << std::flush;
+}
 
 int main() {
     struct termios oldt, newt;
@@ -20,20 +25,25 @@ int main() {
     auto last_tick = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
     while (true) {
         int timeout = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
-        if (poll(fds, 1, 0) > 0) {
+        auto now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+        auto elapsed = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(now - last_tick).count();
+        int wait_time = std::max(0, timeout - (int)elapsed);
+
+        if (poll(fds, 1, wait_time) > 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++;
+            } else {
+                score++;
+            }
+            render_ui(score, hardMode);
         }
-        auto now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
-        auto elapsed = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(now - last_tick).count();
+        now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+        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;
+            render_ui(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";