node-gyp VS swc

The benefit of having it in JS is not speed but portability and access to the JS ecosystem of tools. Having the code run in the browser without needing a complex setup is a huge benefit for sharing demos. Node.js provides a way to use native code as well and it's quite commonly used https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp so there's no reason you couldn't use those same or similar libraries in a JS implementation.

It is still possible to execute binaries made in other languages such as C/C++ by linking it dynamically as Native Addon Modules in Node.js using tools like node-gyp. But the execution in those case is done by the operating system, not the JS Engine.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2023-07-13T06_54_24_745Z-debug-0.log PS C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\scripts> npm install @tensorflow/tfjs-node npm ERR! code 1 npm ERR! path C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node npm ERR! command failed npm ERR! command C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c node scripts/install.js npm ERR! CPU-windows-4.8.0.zip npm ERR! https://storage.googleapis.com/tensorflow/libtensorflow/libtensorflow-cpu-windows-x86_64-2.9.1.zip npm ERR! node-pre-gyp install failed with error: Error: Command failed: node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build npm ERR! node-pre-gyp info it worked if it ends with ok npm ERR! node-pre-gyp info using [email protected] npm ERR! node-pre-gyp info using [email protected] | win32 | x64 npm ERR! node-pre-gyp info check checked for "C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node\lib\napi-v8\tfjs_binding.node" (not found) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp http GET https://storage.googleapis.com/tf-builds/pre-built-binary/napi-v8/4.8.0/CPU-windows-4.8.0.zip npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! install response status 404 Not Found on https://storage.googleapis.com/tf-builds/pre-built-binary/napi-v8/4.8.0/CPU-windows-4.8.0.zip npm ERR! node-pre-gyp WARN Pre-built binaries not installable for @tensorflow/[email protected] and [email protected] (node-v108 ABI, unknown) (falling back to source compile with node-gyp) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp WARN Hit error response status 404 Not Found on https://storage.googleapis.com/tf-builds/pre-built-binary/napi-v8/4.8.0/CPU-windows-4.8.0.zip npm ERR! gyp info it worked if it ends with ok npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] | win32 | x64 npm ERR! gyp info ok npm ERR! gyp info it worked if it ends with ok npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] | win32 | x64 npm ERR! gyp info find Python using Python version 3.7.9 found at "C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_qbz5n2kfra8p0\python.exe" npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS msvs_version not set from command line or npm config npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS VCINSTALLDIR not set, not running in VS Command Prompt npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS checking VS2022 (17.6.33815.320) found at: npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools" npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS - found "Visual Studio C++ core features" npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS - missing any VC++ toolset npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS could not find a version of Visual Studio 2017 or newer to use npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS looking for Visual Studio 2015 npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS - not found npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS not looking for VS2013 as it is only supported up to Node.js 8 npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS ************************************************************** npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS You need to install the latest version of Visual Studio npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS including the "Desktop development with C++" workload. npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS For more information consult the documentation at: npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS ************************************************************** npm ERR! gyp ERR! find VS npm ERR! gyp ERR! configure error npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack Error: Could not find any Visual Studio installation to use npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at VisualStudioFinder.fail (C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:122:47) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:75:16 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at VisualStudioFinder.findVisualStudio2013 (C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:380:14) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:71:14 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\find-visualstudio.js:401:16 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\util.js:54:7 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\util.js:33:16 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:427:5) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:513:28) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1091:16) npm ERR! gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.22621 npm ERR! gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\ASUS\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "configure" "--fallback-to-build" "--module=C:\\Users\\ASUS\\Documents\\Sample Project\\Audio to Text\\node_modules\\@tensorflow\\tfjs-node\\lib\\napi-v8\\tfjs_binding.node" "--module_name=tfjs_binding" "--module_path=C:\\Users\\ASUS\\Documents\\Sample Project\\Audio to Text\\node_modules\\@tensorflow\\tfjs-node\\lib\\napi-v8" "--napi_version=8" "--node_abi_napi=napi" "--napi_build_version=8" "--node_napi_label=napi-v8" npm ERR! gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node npm ERR! gyp ERR! node -v v18.16.0 npm ERR! gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v9.4.0 npm ERR! gyp ERR! not ok npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! build error npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! stack Error: Failed to execute 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js configure --fallback-to-build --module=C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node\lib\napi-v8\tfjs_binding.node --module_name=tfjs_binding --module_path=C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node\lib\napi-v8 --napi_version=8 --node_abi_napi=napi --napi_build_version=8 --node_napi_label=napi-v8' (1) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess. (C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@mapbox\node-pre-gyp\lib\util\compile.js:89:23) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:513:28) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! stack at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1091:16) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:302:5) npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.22621 npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\ASUS\\Documents\\Sample Project\\Audio to Text\\node_modules\\@mapbox\\node-pre-gyp\\bin\\node-pre-gyp" "install" "--fallback-to-build" npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\ASUS\Documents\Sample Project\Audio to Text\node_modules\@tensorflow\tfjs-node npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! node -v v18.16.0 npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! node-pre-gyp -v v1.0.9 npm ERR! node-pre-gyp ERR! not ok npm ERR! * Downloading libtensorflow npm ERR! npm ERR! * Building TensorFlow Node.js bindings npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\ASUS\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2023-07-13T07_03_46_164Z-debug-0.log

create a native Node package using node-gyp

These are the bare minimum. You can also target other API levels like @nodert-win10-au, etc. You'll need to set up node-gyp with Python and Windows Build Tools and install the Windows 10 SDK corresponding to the version of the NodeRT package you pulled in.

I assume it's use of node-gyp, the native plugin system.

https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp

I got it from here. Using -std=c++20 gives me cl : command line warning D9002: ignoring unknown option '-std=c++20'

Read the docs https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows

First, we switched the default compiler for new projects from Babel to SWC (Speedy Web Compiler). SWC is dramatically faster than Babel and requires zero configuration. We’ll continue to support Babel in any project currently using it.

SWC

As the reference explains “**SWC** (Speedy Web Compiler) is an extensible Rust-based platform that can be used for both compilation and bundling. Using SWC with Nest CLI is a great and simple way to significantly speed up your development process.”

This is specifically about breaking the myth that performing expensive self-contained operations (e.g, parsing GraphQL) in a native extension (C, Rust, etc.) is always faster than the interpreted language.

The JS ecosystem has the same problem, people think rewriting everything in Rust will be a magic fix. In practice, there's always the problem highlighted in the post (transitioning is expensive, causes optimization bailouts), as well as the cost of actually getting the results back into Node-land. This is why SWC abandoned the JS API for writing plugins - constantly bouncing back and forth while traversing AST nodes was even slower than Babel (e.g https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/1392#issuecomment-...)

Why Speedy Web Compiler ?

FTA is a TypeScript static analysis tool built on the speedy foundations of swc. FTA is fast; capable of analyzing more than 150 files per second on typical hardware, it offers a powerful addition to your code quality toolkit.

Very cool! I'm curious, is this intended for dev tooling?

For example, I could see this (or something similar) being useful as the engine for a typescript language server that would be faster than the standard one

But if it's not aimed at 1:1 with tsc, would it be intended more for something like swc[1]?

Or what would you expect people to use this for, besides just being a cool project to learn from?

[1] https://github.com/swc-project/swc

This is... good news, but I still cannot fathom using the default Typescript compiler for regular development. Seriously, leave the type-checking to your IDE and CICD chain, and switch to using tsx (https://www.npmjs.com/package/tsx) or swc (https://swc.rs/) and you will _immediately_ notice the difference in speed and productivity.