flutter_dot_loader 1.0.0

Customizable dot-matrix and LED loading animations for Flutter — 60 patterns, scrolling marquee text, custom pixel frames, AI chat typing indicator. Zero deps.

1.0.0

First stable release. The API surface (MatrixLoader, DotLoader, TriangleLoader, MatrixText, MatrixData) is considered stable and will follow semver from here on.

• feat: semanticsLabel on MatrixLoader, DotLoader, and TriangleLoader — when set, the loader is wrapped in a Semantics node so screen readers (TalkBack / VoiceOver) announce it (e.g. 'Loading', 'Assistant is thinking'). Defaults to null (decorative, no semantics node), mirroring Flutter's own ProgressIndicator.semanticsLabel convention.
• perf: all loaders now wrap their painting subtree in a RepaintBoundary, so the per-frame repaint stays confined to the loader instead of dirtying ancestor layers ~60 times a second.
• docs: live web demo of the example app (gallery / playground / studio) now hosted on GitHub Pages and linked from the README.
• feat: MatrixLoader.paused (forwarded as DotLoader.paused) — when true, the underlying AnimationController stops and the loader freezes in place while staying mounted. Toggling back to false resumes loop/bounce cycles seamlessly; once restarts from progress 0.0. The _runId stale-run guard also blocks any in-flight once onComplete from firing after a pause. Useful for chat "thinking" indicators between turns, branded loaders behind settled state, and CPU savings on off-screen loaders.
• chore(package): published archive size dropped from 3 MB to 1 MB (-67%). Two changes:
  1. Deleted unreferenced duplicate 1.gif (472 KB) and 2.gif (1 MB) from the repo root — the canonical copies have always lived in assets/ and the README points there.
  2. Added a .pubignore to exclude internal maintenance files from the published bundle: CLAUDE.md, SPECS.md, tool/, doc/. None of these ship value to package consumers; they're roadmap, generator scripts, and the auto-generated font preview.
• chore(pubspec): description rewritten (154 chars) to reflect every post-0.0.5 capability — scrolling marquee text, custom pixel frames, AI chat indicator — while staying in pub.dev's 60–180 sweet spot.
• chore(pubspec): topics tightened from animation, loader, loading, widget, ui to loader, animation, dot-matrix, led, pixel-art. The dropped generics had high noise on pub.dev's topic-search; the new ones map directly to the package's niche.
• docs: new doc/font_preview.md — auto-generated ASCII-art preview of every glyph in the 5×7 MatrixText font. Pure Dart generator under tool/generate_font_preview.dart; a drift test fails if the artifact stops matching matrix_text.dart, so every glyph change forces a visible diff in review.
• chore: lib/src/matrix_text.dart no longer pulls in package:flutter_dot_loader/flutter_dot_loader.dart (it never used any Flutter or library types). The file is now pure Dart, which is what lets the new tool/ scripts import it without dragging in dart:ui.
• feat: three new semantic aliases on MatrixPattern — sonarPing (alias for circular4, a pure outward radial pulse), pinwheel (alias for circular15, a 4-arm rotating sweep), and columnWave (alias for triangle8, a horizontal column scan). Total semantic aliases now 16; total enum values 77. README cheat sheet and AGENTS.md alias table reflect the additions.
• feat: MatrixLoader.onComplete callback — fires once when MatrixPlayback.once finishes a play-through. Closes the loop on finite splash / loading animations so apps can navigate, transition, or hand off state when the animation ends. Has no effect for loop / bounce modes. Stale-run-guarded: if the widget is disposed or the playback mode changes before completion, the callback does not fire.
• feat: MatrixData now has JSON helpers for shipping frames over Firebase Remote Config, Firestore, app config, or any other JSON channel. Four new methods: MatrixData.toJson(grid) / fromJson(map) for a single frame and MatrixData.framesToJson(frames) / framesFromJson(map) for an animation. Output is a Map<String, dynamic> (callers pass it through dart:convert's jsonEncode — the package itself stays zero-dep). The frames payload is versioned (MatrixData.jsonSchemaVersion), and framesFromJson also accepts the legacy comma-joined string for backwards compatibility.
• feat: MatrixText font now covers all common UI punctuation and symbols — , ; : ' " - _ + = / \ * # @ $ % & | ^ ~ \ ( ) [ ] { } < >in addition to the previously supported. ! ?. Real-world strings like "Loading: 42%", "12/24", "Don't quit", "[e-mail]"` now render fully.
• feat: MatrixText.supportedCharacters getter exposes the font's coverage set so apps can validate user input before encoding.
• docs: README + AGENTS reference the expanded charset.
• test: add MatrixText group asserting full charset coverage, glyph shape invariants (7 rows × 5 cols of 0/1), fallback-to-space behavior, and lowercase normalization. Total test count: 18.

0.0.5

• fix: replace portrait animated-GIF pubspec screenshots with static landscape PNGs (assets/screenshot_gallery.png, assets/screenshot_studio.png) so pub.dev's screenshot pipeline renders thumbnails correctly. The animated GIFs remain in the README and are unchanged.

0.0.4

• fix: restore const constructors on MatrixLoader and DotLoader so the documented const usage in the README and tests actually compiles
• fix: replace deprecated withOpacity with withValues(alpha:) (Flutter 3.27+)
• chore: tighten analysis_options.yaml (strict-casts/inference, deprecation warnings, sorted directives & dependencies)
• chore: add pub.dev topics: for discoverability (animation, loader, loading, widget, ui)
• docs: add AGENTS.md with copy-paste recipes and a decision tree for AI coding agents
• docs: README quick-start now leads with DotLoader(color: …) for the AI-chat use case
• test: cover DotLoader defaults and the color shorthand; bump pattern-count assertion to 74

0.0.3

• feat: added DotLoader simplified wrapper
• feat: added semantic aliases to MatrixPattern
• feat: added 'color' parameter to MatrixLoader for automatic color derivation

0.0.2

• Studio Parity Update: Expanded MatrixLoader with dotanime studio parity features.
• Marquee Text: Added MatrixText to automatically convert and scroll text strings into dot-matrix arrays (includes a built-in 5x7 font map).
• Interactivity: Added onDotTapped(row, col) to allow using the dot matrix as an interactive keypad/synthesizer.
• Playback Modes: Added MatrixPlayback enum (loop, bounce, once) for non-loading, finite animations.
• Easing Curves: Added curve property to MatrixLoader to allow non-linear animation (e.g., easeInOut).
• Compression Utilities: Added MatrixData for compressing/decompressing 2D arrays to lightweight strings (e.g. 101|010|101).
• Example Upgrade: Added Text and Interactive tabs to the example app to showcase the new capabilities.

0.0.1

• Initial release of flutter_dot_loader.
• Includes MatrixLoader with customizable shapes (Square, Circular, Triangle).
• Features 60 unique math-driven animation patterns spanning spirals, vortexes, pulses, and geometric shifts.
• Supports Custom Frames (MatrixPattern.custom + customIntensity) for building frame-by-frame dot matrix animations (e.g. Tetris, scrolling text).
• High-performance rendering engine built cleanly on CustomPainter.
• Includes a fully-featured Example App: an interactive Playground (with real-time parameter tweaking and code generation) and a Dot Matrix Studio Editor for designing custom frames.