🎨 Palette: Improve game responsiveness and visual 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.
+
+## 2024-06-03 - Real-time CLI Feedback
+**Learning:** For terminal applications, immediate feedback on user input is crucial for a "tactile" feel. Decoupling the UI update from the main game tick and centralizing it in a `render_ui` function ensures the display always reflects the current state instantly. Using `\r` and space padding allows for smooth, in-place updates without the flicker of clearing the whole screen.
+**Action:** Always provide immediate visual confirmation of user actions in CLI tools, even if the primary state update happens on a timer.

.github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+name: C++ Build
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ "main" ]
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [ "main" ]
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+    - name: Build
+      run: make
+
+    - name: Test
+      run: |
+        # Run a simple check to see if the game can start and quit
+        (echo "q"; sleep 1) | ./game | grep "Thanks for playing!"

src/main.cpp

@@ -4,6 +4,22 @@
 #include <poll.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <termios.h>
+#include <algorithm>
+
+void render_ui(int score, bool hardMode) {
+    const char* green = "\033[32m";
+    const char* red = "\033[31m";
+    const char* bold = "\033[1m";
+    const char* reset = "\033[0m";
+
+    std::cout << "\r" << "Score: " << green << bold << score << reset;
+    if (hardMode) {
+        std::cout << "  [" << red << bold << "HARD MODE" << reset << "]  ";
+    } else {
+        std::cout << "  [NORMAL]     ";
+    }
+    std::cout << std::flush;
+}
 
 int main() {
     struct termios oldt, newt;
@@ -18,24 +34,39 @@ int main() {
 
     struct pollfd fds[1] = {{STDIN_FILENO, POLLIN, 0}};
     auto last_tick = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+
+    render_ui(score, hardMode);
+
     while (true) {
-        int timeout = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
-        if (poll(fds, 1, 0) > 0) {
+        int interval = hardMode ? 100 : 1000;
+        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, (int)(interval - 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();
-        if (elapsed >= timeout) {
-            score++; last_tick = now;
-            std::cout << "Score: " << score << (hardMode ? " [FAST]  " : " [NORMAL]  ") << "\r" << std::flush;
+
+        now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+        elapsed = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(now - last_tick).count();
+        if (elapsed >= interval) {
+            score++;
+            last_tick = now;
+            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";
+    std::cout << "\n\n==========================\n"
+              << "      GAME OVER\n"
+              << "==========================\n"
+              << "Final Score: " << score << "\n"
+              << "Thanks for playing!\n";
     return 0;
 }