Skink Finally Learns to Speak Windows

When I first showed Skink to a colleague of mine, his immediate reaction wasn’t about the syntax, the reference counting, or the sheer elegance of the compiler. It was:

"There’s no Windows version!"

I really should have seen that coming. The man bleeds Microsoft blue. If it doesn’t run on Windows, it might as well be written on stone tablets. As annoying as it was to admit, though, he had a point.

Because all of my research, development, and general tinkering happens on Linux (Fedora, to be exact), getting a Linux build out the door first was the obvious path of least resistance. Frankly, I also knew that dragging a new language onto Windows had the potential to turn into a week-long battle with path separators, missing headers, and mysterious linker errors.

Hello, Windows

Fortunately, I inadvertently made a very clever decision right at the start of this project—even if I do say so myself. Skink is backed by LLVM. Because LLVM already knows how to target multiple operating systems without breaking a sweat, getting a Windows build together wasn't nearly the nightmare I had braced myself for.

The Current Catch

I won't pretend the Windows installation is quite as effortless as the Linux one just yet. Right now, there is a small manual hurdle before you can start skinking:

1. Install LLVM yourself.

2. Add the LLVM bin folder to your system PATH. (Because the official Windows installer doesn't tick that box for you, and Windows loves making you work for it.)

Once LLVM is in your PATH, the installer script should handle the rest of the heavy lifting. I do plan to smooth out this setup process in a future update so you won't have to babysit environment variables, but for now, it gets you up and running.

Supported Platforms

With Windows officially joining the party, Skink now supports a respectable lineup of architectures and operating systems:

• Linux (x86_64): Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RHEL, Arch, Alpine

• Linux (aarch64): Debian/Ubuntu (including Raspberry Pi OS), Fedora/RHEL, Arch, Alpine

• macOS: Intel only (for now)

• Windows: x86-64 and arm64

I’ll be doing my best to keep the builds synchronised across the board, though platform realities mean a few features will inevitably stay put where they belong—you won't be toggling Raspberry Pi GPIO pins from a Windows 11 desktop anytime soon, for instance.

So, to all the Windows users out there (and especially my colleague): welcome aboard. Grab the installer, fight the PATH variable for thirty seconds, and have some fun with my little project.