Standard road bike I presume?

You don't loose much, if any, gear spread (highest to lowest) with a compact double front. You do increase the distance between gears some (not as much fine tuning).

IMO, double.

Two potential exceptions: 1) you have some really gnarly hills (I'm in the CO front range and ride a double, sometimes I wish I had one or two smaller but I can make it up and I could replace my rear cassette with something lower to solve that). 2) You are the type of rider that would rather spin an easy gear at all times and go slow up hills and really have no interest in pushing that envelope (nothing wrong with being that type).

You can, in theory, get a better lower gear spread with a triple out of the box than you typically will with a double out of the box.

Cross bike or touring bike; might change my opinion a bit.