Yes, for compile crystal program to windows binary, you need to install VS Build Tools.

But after the executable binary is compiled then it can run without any dependencies. I think the later is more important for a window program.

I gave the exes to my users and none of them had any problem running it.

For development currently WSL is still the best way to run crystal in windows.

> WSL is still the best way to run crystal in windows.

WSL is never the best way to do anything, unless the question is "what is the best way to emulate Linux on Windows?". In all other cases, WSL is literally the worst way to do anything.

It just requires the build tools. If you use scoop, that entails to:

> run `scoop install vs_2022_cpp_build_tools`

(from the "required libraries" link in https://crystal-lang.org/install/on_windows/)

That just installs Visual Studio:

https://github.com/neatorobito/scoop-crystal/blob/main/bucke...

no thank you.

This specifically installs the Visual C++ Compiler and the Windows headers so that you can get a command prompt with all that in your PATH. It is not a full-fat VS install. The difference is something like 20-30GBs for the full VS install vs 1-2GB for these specific components.

Meanwhile, LLVM-MinGW is 108 MB:

https://github.com/mstorsjo/llvm-mingw/releases

now you are just arguing for the sake of argument. unzip the file and it will expand to a 400MB folder.

Have you ever installed Visual Studio? I have. Even just the build tools DOWNLOADS 1-2 GB, as other user mentioned, which is still 10 times what you get with other options.