HarpJS GUI in Beta

so, this is interesting. harp is my “go to” static site generator when presenting on the topic and building new static sites. (i also really dig jekyll and go back and forth between which i like best.) the harp team is now testing a new desktop application called harp gui. you can find the github repo here: https://github.com/alexgleason/harp-gui . right now there’s only builds for linux but you can generate builds for osx and windows. what does it do exactly?

after opening it, you get a simple screen:

given you have a harp project already (and remember, technically, any folder can be a harp project), you can then drag it onto the app to activate it:

at this point, you can click to view the site in your browser or click to compile it. in case you’re curious, compiling it will create a subdirectory called _build in your project.

so… not a lot to it yet, but one of the things that hinders the use of ssgs in general is that they really aren’t terribly user friendly for non-technical folks. (i wrote an article about this topic for telerik: merging dynamic and static sites ) initiatives like this could go a long way to making it easier for normal people (yes, i called non-devs ‘normal’). what do my readers think–can this help increase usage of ssgs?