Certain PHP code blocks causing plugin to break

This plugin has worked well for me in the past, but this particular code block is causing problems.

Code is here.

One point of contention is line 40: while ( count( $colors_custom ) / 2 < $_num_of_cols ) {

If I copy and paste up to that line, the code breaks. If I reverse the while clause to get rid of the less-than symbol and make it a greater-than, it works.

Working line: while ( $_num_of_cols > count( $colors_custom ) / 2 ) {

There are other points in the code that cause it to break also but I haven’t had a chance to check every line. I should also mention that I’m enclosing that block in the [php][/php] shortcode.