getAlertGradientTable(max): Create a table of r,g,b color values for an alert scale 1 - max

getBadnessLevels.lua

local function getBadnessLevel(num, max)
  local halfWay = (max+1) / 2
  local stepSize = 255 / (halfWay - 1)
  local r,g,b = 0,255,0
  if num <= 1 then
    return r,g,b
  end
  if num > max then
    return 255,0,0
  end
  if num < halfWay then
    r = math.floor((num - 1) * stepSize)
    return r,g,b
  else
    r = 255
    g = 255 - math.floor((num - halfWay) * stepSize)
    return r,g,b
  end
end
function getAlertGradientTable(max)
  local result = {}
  for i = 1, max do
    result[i] = {getBadnessLevel(i, max)}
  end
  return result
end
--[[
-- code below this creates a Mudlet demonstration of what the colors look like on a 1-10 scale. 
echo("\n\n")
local grads = getAlertGradientTable(10)
for lvl, clr in ipairs(grads) do
  local r,g,b = unpack(clr)
  local txt = f"<{r},{g},{b}>Badness level is {lvl}\n"
  decho(txt)
end
--]]