Fix window shuttering during initial loading by preventing short-lived windows

[Copilot]

This PR eliminates the system-wide window shuttering/flickering that occurs during application startup by preventing short-lived windows from appearing on screen.

Problem

During application startup, users experienced visual disruption from windows that would briefly appear and then immediately disappear:

1. FlightControllerInfoWindow - Would show UI, download parameters, then auto-close
2. ComponentEditorWindow - When skipped, would appear for 10ms then destroy itself
3. This created a poor user experience with flickering windows during launch

Solution

FlightControllerInfoWindow Changes

• Added optional show_window=False parameter to constructor (backward compatible)
• Added _download_flight_controller_parameters_no_window() method for background operations
• Modified main startup flow to download FC parameters without showing window

Before:

fciw = FlightControllerInfoWindow(state.flight_controller)  # Shows window briefly
state.param_default_values = fciw.get_param_default_values()

After:

fciw = FlightControllerInfoWindow(state.flight_controller, show_window=False)  # No window
state.param_default_values = fciw.get_param_default_values()

Component Editor Skip Logic

• Moved skip condition check before window creation
• Return early instead of creating window just to destroy it 10ms later

Before:

# Create window first, then destroy it immediately
component_editor_window = create_and_configure_component_editor(...)
if should_skip_editor:
    component_editor_window.root.after(10, component_editor_window.root.destroy)
component_editor_window.root.mainloop()

After:

# Check skip condition first, avoid window creation entirely
if should_skip_editor:
    return  # No window creation at all
component_editor_window = create_and_configure_component_editor(...)
component_editor_window.root.mainloop()

Testing

• Updated tests to verify new show_window=False parameter functionality
• Added test for background parameter download without window display
• Updated component editor tests to verify window creation is bypassed when skipping
• All changes are backward compatible

Impact

✅ User Experience: Eliminated window flickering during application startup
✅ Performance: Reduced unnecessary GUI overhead during background operations
✅ Maintainability: Clear separation between UI and business logic
✅ Compatibility: Existing code continues to work unchanged

Fixes #652.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• esm.ubuntu.com
  • Triggering command: /usr/lib/apt/methods/https (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to my firewall allow list

---

💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.

[github-actions]

Test Results

    2 files      2 suites   1m 35s ⏱️
1 584 tests 1 583 ✅ 1 💤 0 ❌
3 168 runs  3 166 ✅ 2 💤 0 ❌

Results for commit db8d1a5.

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

[github-actions]

☂️ Python Coverage

current status: ✅

Overall Coverage

Lines	Covered	Coverage	Threshold	Status
7673	5928	77%	73%	🟢

New Files

No new covered files...

Modified Files

File	Coverage	Status
ardupilot_methodic_configurator/main.py	87%	🟢
ardupilot_methodic_configurator/frontend_tkinter_flightcontroller_info.py	88%	🟢
TOTAL	88%	🟢

updated for commit: db8d1a5 by action🐍