4 ms·

print out some additional help text that explains that you shouldn’t try double-clicking it from explorer again. Why not? If a large number of your users want

print out some additional help text that explains that you shouldn’t try double-clicking it from explorer again. Why not? If a large number of your users want to double-click it, why tell them that they are wrong? It sounds like you already support it now anyway.

inconshreveable 12y ago
Your point is well taken. The thing is that ngrok does not do anything useful beyond printing out the help text when double-clicked, and without the text, I'd be worried that a user might actually try to double-click it again when it doesn't do what they want instead of typing the command with useful arguments, if that makes sense.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- jey 12y ago
  Have you considered adding a GUI to better fit with these users' expectations?
- kulkarnic 12y ago
  How about asking people for the command line arguments once they double-click? Telling users they are wrong seldom works in the long run, because this requires a change in the mental model. The program model most people using GUIs assume is "you open a program, then you tell it what to do". The CLI model of "you first decide what the program must do, then you run it" just requires more thinking. As Steve Krug points out, "don't make me think" :)
- Zarel 12y ago
  ngrok also opens a command prompt window when double-clicked, which I'd classify as useful even to people who know that ngrok should be used via the commandline (it's far more convenient than opening Command Prompt and cd'ing to the correct directory; and most people don't know about the shift-right-click "Open Command Prompt Here" trick). And that's in addition to displaying help text. After reading a bit into what ngrok actually is, kulkarnic's suggestion of an interactive mode probably makes more sense. Easier than building a full GUI, but an experience close enough to a GUI that even users unfamiliar with a commandline should be able to use it without difficulty.
scrollaway 12y ago
Have you at all bothered to read the blog post? > In the process of writing up this blog post, I wondered if I could do even better. Is there a way I could eliminate that last support email? After searching around for a bit, I stumbled on cmd.exe’s /K option which instructs cmd.exe to run the program and remain open after it terminates. The soon-to-released ngrok 2.0 contains the final iteration of this feature. When you double click it from explorer, it will relaunch itself using cmd /K so that it executes as if you had opened the prompt yourself and run the command.
wavefunction 12y ago
What if they're actually trying to triple-click? There are many good reasons to limit users and user interactions to the appropriate existing context. A "double-click" is a Windows metaphor and not a Web metaphor and should ignored if not actively discouraged. I have nothing against Windows but it's simply not appropriate to extend its behavior to the web.
- gizmo686 12y ago
  Aren't we talking about the behaviour of a Windows' application?

inconshreveable 12y ago

Your point is well taken. The thing is that ngrok does not do anything useful beyond printing out the help text when double-clicked, and without the text, I'd be worried that a user might actually try to double-click it again when it doesn't do what they want instead of typing the command with useful arguments, if that makes sense.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jey 12y ago
Have you considered adding a GUI to better fit with these users' expectations?
kulkarnic 12y ago
How about asking people for the command line arguments once they double-click? Telling users they are wrong seldom works in the long run, because this requires a change in the mental model. The program model most people using GUIs assume is "you open a program, then you tell it what to do". The CLI model of "you first decide what the program must do, then you run it" just requires more thinking. As Steve Krug points out, "don't make me think" :)
Zarel 12y ago
ngrok also opens a command prompt window when double-clicked, which I'd classify as useful even to people who know that ngrok should be used via the commandline (it's far more convenient than opening Command Prompt and cd'ing to the correct directory; and most people don't know about the shift-right-click "Open Command Prompt Here" trick). And that's in addition to displaying help text. After reading a bit into what ngrok actually is, kulkarnic's suggestion of an interactive mode probably makes more sense. Easier than building a full GUI, but an experience close enough to a GUI that even users unfamiliar with a commandline should be able to use it without difficulty.

scrollaway 12y ago

Have you at all bothered to read the blog post? > In the process of writing up this blog post, I wondered if I could do even better. Is there a way I could eliminate that last support email? After searching around for a bit, I stumbled on cmd.exe’s /K option which instructs cmd.exe to run the program and remain open after it terminates. The soon-to-released ngrok 2.0 contains the final iteration of this feature. When you double click it from explorer, it will relaunch itself using cmd /K so that it executes as if you had opened the prompt yourself and run the command.

wavefunction 12y ago

What if they're actually trying to triple-click? There are many good reasons to limit users and user interactions to the appropriate existing context. A "double-click" is a Windows metaphor and not a Web metaphor and should ignored if not actively discouraged. I have nothing against Windows but it's simply not appropriate to extend its behavior to the web.

gizmo686 12y ago
Aren't we talking about the behaviour of a Windows' application?