MDC 101 Material Design Tutorial throwing error when npm install starter - npm

Question

I was thinking of getting started with material.io tutorials
I downloaded the starter pack from https://codelabs.developers.google.com/codelabs/mdc-101-web#1
but Its showing error after hitting npm install
I can't understand the error :
C:\Users\hp\Desktop\Material\materialdesign\abc\mdc-101\starter>npm install
npm WARN deprecated fsevents#1.2.13: fsevents 1 will break on node v14+ and could be using insecure
binaries. Upgrade to fsevents 2.
> fibers#4.0.3 install C:\Users\hp\Desktop\Material\materialdesign\abc\mdc-
101\starter\node_modules\fibers
> node build.js || nodejs build.js
C:\Users\hp\Desktop\Material\materialdesign\abc\mdc-101\starter\node_modules\fibers>if not defined
npm_config_node_gyp (node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\node-
gyp-bin\\..\..\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild --release ) else (node "C:\Program
Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild --release )
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! find VS msvs_version not set from command line or npm config
gyp ERR! find VS VCINSTALLDIR not set, not running in VS Command Prompt
gyp ERR! find VS checking VS2017 (15.9.28307.1440) found at:
gyp ERR! find VS "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools"
gyp ERR! find VS - found "Visual Studio C++ core features"
gyp ERR! find VS - found VC++ toolset: v141
gyp ERR! find VS - missing any Windows SDK
gyp ERR! find VS could not find a version of Visual Studio 2017 or newer to use
gyp ERR! find VS looking for Visual Studio 2015
gyp ERR! find VS - not found
gyp ERR! find VS not looking for VS2013 as it is only supported up to Node.js 8
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! find VS **************************************************************
gyp ERR! find VS You need to install the latest version of Visual Studio
gyp ERR! find VS including the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
gyp ERR! find VS For more information consult the documentation at:
gyp ERR! find VS https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows
gyp ERR! find VS **************************************************************
gyp ERR! find VS
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Could not find any Visual Studio installation to use
gyp ERR! stack at VisualStudioFinder.fail (C:\Program
Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:121:47)
gyp ERR! stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-
visualstudio.js:74:16
gyp ERR! stack at VisualStudioFinder.findVisualStudio2013 (C:\Program
Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:351:14)
gyp ERR! stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-
visualstudio.js:70:14
gyp ERR! stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-
visualstudio.js:372:16
gyp ERR! stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\util.js:54:7
gyp ERR! stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-
gyp\lib\util.js:33:16
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:315:5)
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:315:20)
gyp ERR! stack at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1048:16)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.19041
gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Program
Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "rebuild" "--release"
gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\hp\Desktop\Material\materialdesign\abc\mdc-101\starter\node_modules\fibers
gyp ERR! node -v v14.16.1
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v5.1.0
gyp ERR! not ok
node-gyp exited with code: 1
Please make sure you are using a supported platform and node version. If you
would like to compile fibers on this machine please make sure you have setup your
build environment--
Windows + OS X instructions here: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp
Ubuntu users please run: `sudo apt-get install g++ build-essential`
RHEL users please run: `yum install gcc-c++` and `yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'`
Alpine users please run: `sudo apk add python make g++`
'nodejs' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents#^1.2.7
(node_modules\chokidar\node_modules\fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents#1.2.13: wanted
{"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"})
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! fibers#4.0.3 install: `node build.js || nodejs build.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the fibers#4.0.3 install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! C:\Users\hp\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2021-04-15T08_25_49_219Z-debug.log
I don't understand why its referring to Visual Studio when it has nothing to do with the IDE.
PS: My visual studio code is completely up to date.

Answer 1

It needs VC, not for IDE, but for the toolchain. Some modules require to be built into a proper native addon and be native binary. I think sometimes maintainers provide a way to get pre-built binaries for some OSs, but if it's not prebuilt, then it has to be built locally, for that you need a real toolchain. So you Visual Studio Build Tools for that.
Did you follow the link from the error message?
https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows
If you would follow the tutorial on the same OS, as it was designed for, it might have been a less painful experience, so that's might be a surprise for you. Often developers even forget that they depend on something which depends on something else which is a native addon.