some packages ship with pre-built versions of binaries for the most popular platforms (eg serialport) - so don't need tools - but if there is a combination they don't have (or there is no prebuild) then they have to be built - eg serialport on Armv6 for Pi - so it is entirely possible that this package may have shipped node10 binary but not yet node12 - etc.
( this is the the main long standing reason we recommended the LTS versions of Node.js ).
Our windows install docs do talk about how to install tools if anyone reads down that far.
That is what was confusing me, the error says You need to install the latest version of Visual Studio whereas I see now that actually means the Build Tools from VS not VS itself. So once again messages from npm/gyp spread confusion (in me anyway). Now dispelled thanks to help from here
The npm install installs Vs compiler and python and all bits necessary for nodejs compilation on windows.
Visual studio not installed and it is not necessary for nodejs
Yes, I understood that, thanks. Hence the error message "You need to install the latest version of Visual Studio" is not accurate. It should be something like "You need to install the Windows Build Tools"
