Dev Log — Super Color Picker v1.5

Why this release

Two big goals drove v1.5:

1. eliminate all dialog “jitter” and resize surprises, and

2. turn the Wheel into a serious, precise editor (with HSL) while restoring the visual shade cues users loved.

Headline changes

1) Pro Wheel + HSL controls

• New Hue° / Sat% / Light% sliders live in the Wheel dialog.

• Reset HSL restores the Wheel to the exact state it had when you opened it (no more partial resets).

• Dragging on the wheel previews instantly; the actual commit happens on release. This keeps the main dialog stable and avoids thrash.

2) Shade markers

• Inner ring shows your Base ramp’s shades radiating toward the center.

• This was a key visual aid in earlier builds; it’s back and integrated with the new Wheel.

3) Hard width lock everywhere

• The main dialog now enforces a fixed width after every UI change (recompute, hover info toggle, canvas reflow, and Wheel picks).

• Result: zero jitter, even when text labels or hover info change.

Stability & refactors

• Nil-call crashes fixed:

  • recomputeRamps() is defined before any use.

  • Hover state is cleared during recompute so c is never nil in draw paths.

• Prefs are safer: All reads/writes to app.preferences.super_color_picker are guarded with pcall.

• Hover info is optional: Value overlay defaults OFF to reduce width churn and noise.

Performance notes

• Anti-aliased, better-looking wheel rendering; shade markers are composited efficiently.

• Known trade-off: on very old hardware, full-quality wheel redraws may feel heavier. The main dialog remains smooth.

QA checklist (done)

• Toggle Auto FG on/off with frequent FG changes → no layout shift, ramps recompute correctly.

• Toggle Compact mode repeatedly → width stays locked, canvases reflow to the correct size.

• Drag/release on wheel → preview during drag, commit on release, main dialog width unchanged.

• Extreme slider cases: Min Δ = 1 and 20, Step° = 5 and 45, Slope = 0–10% → no crashes, ramps remain legible.

• Open/close Wheel repeatedly → HSL reset works, markers obey toggles, no cumulative drift.

What changed under the hood (high level)

• Bridge ramp builder: Computes hue delta in [-0.5, 0.5] (shortest arc) and distributes steps evenly, with an optional mid-balanced value slope.

• Lock helper: Centralized width-locking routine is now called after any path that might mutate the layout (including wheel-event commits).

• Hover state: Defensive resets whenever ramp arrays are rebuilt.

Known limitations (tracked)

• The Wheel’s rendering is more detailed now; on some systems it can feel heavier during continuous drags (preview path mitigates this -work in progress).

• Shade markers are always tied to the Base ramp by design.

Credits

• Feature design & direction: William P. McCollom (FBEpyon)

• Code assistance & documentation polish: AI pair-dev support

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