Windows install instructions should make it obvious that you need to install Visual Studio

[al45tair]

The Windows install page does not make it sufficiently obvious that installing Visual Studio is a prerequisite for a working Swift install. If you're using winget, of course, this happens automatically and there is no problem, but if you are using the GUI installer, which is what most people will reach for by default, that is not the case.

Yes, for the release version, there is an instructions link just under the installer link, but there is no indication on the page itself that just installing using the GUI installer will not be sufficient (or that using winget might be advantageous, in spite of requiring the use of the command prompt).

The symptoms you get when you try to use Swift without Visual Studio installed are perplexing for a new user of Swift; you see errors like

26 | // __UINTxx_TYPE__ are defined only since Clang 3.5.
27 | #if !defined(__APPLE__) && !defined(__linux__) && !defined(__OpenBSD__) && !defined(__wasi__)
28 | #include <stdint.h>
   |          `- error: 'stdint.h' file not found
29 | typedef int64_t __swift_int64_t;
30 | typedef uint64_t __swift_uint64_t;

when trying to build a simple program (even the default generated by swift package init --type executable, actually), and the cause is not obvious.