SDK What is the Software Development Kit and what are its best tools?

It is no secret to anyone that application development is one of the technological market niches of greater future and to that is due its remarkable boom today. Well, for some years now, the growth of this area of ​​the digital world has been disproportionate, both desktop level as well as for mobile devices.

Now, every time a certain application is developed regardless of its type, it is very important to have at hand the right tools that can assist developers during that process. Thus, these tools will allow them to save time and effort, and simultaneously guarantee absolute quality in the final result.

From there, the great fame that has taken the SDK or Software Development Kit, today, in the computer world. Since, it reveals a remarkable assistance in the programming of applications for a particular technological framework and that is why, in this post, we present you what is the sdk about and much more information of interest.

What is the software development kit and what is it for?

To begin with, we note that SDK refers to the acronym for “Software Development Kit” or the same as it means “Computer Application Development Kit/Package”which can be defined as a set of tools that help people in the process of programming applications of any kind.

In this sense, basically, a Computer Application Development Package consists of a virtual briefcase that contains everything required for expert and beginner application developers to create and work on a project with complete quality. Thus, a mechanism whose purpose is unleash the imagination of developers today.

Also, it should be noted that the SDKs are completely free and are distributed through the web; Therefore, they have become a widely used modality both by developers who operate as collaborators, as well as by companies because that is how they manage to exhibit their products in a transparent and comprehensive manner.

In short, the applications developed on the SDK will be designated for a specific operating system, a certain hardware platform, as well as for a special computer application package and even for a video game console as well. Thanks to, there are many resources that an SDK can encompass.

How does the SDK license influence the type of software we want to make?

Now, since there are several free SDKs on the net that you can choose from, you are probably wondering: How does the Software Development Kit license intervene in the type of program to be created?

Well, it is appropriate to highlight that one of the most valuable factors when choosing said package, is based on the type of license that contains the SDK. Since, if you use an SDK with a standard license, it will not be possible to develop open source programs from that virtual briefcase that helps you during the development of applications or programs.

In addition to this, it should also be noted that the SDKs can add a computer application license that makes them incompatible to create software that is intended to be made for an unsupported license. In other words, a proprietary Software Development Kit will be incompatible for the development of free softwaremost likely.

Also an SDK under GPL license may be incompatible with the development of proprietary software. However, the SDK under LGPL license is ideal for the development of such proprietary software.

What are the most important tools an SDK must have?

As we explained before, the Computer Application Development Kit contains everything necessary for developers to create an excellent application or an excellent program that shows great quality. However, although there are many resources that it can host to provide them to you, the truth is that only some of them are the most important.

So, here are its main features:

An application programming interface

Also known as “API”refers to a conceptualization of the inner workings of the environment on which you are going to work. In other words, just as its name indicates, it is the abstraction of the interface that you are going to develop.

In that sense, they are like a set of functions, data structures, classes, variables, and routines that provide you with the ease of manipulate, in your own way, the mechanism of the platform without even knowing it internallyeven.

An integrated development environment

It is known as “SDI” in the field of SDKs and is defined as an editor that helps you with everything you need to write the source code of the program, very easily. In addition to this, it also generally offers a friendly interface for two essential applications, What are they:

• Compiler: It is responsible for translating the source code into machine language and thus obtains an executable program.
• Debugger: Allows you to test the program during each step of its execution.

Sample code and other documentation

From this tool, you can start application development and of course, all the SDKs that you find on the web contain this resource in a mandatory way.

An emulator of the environment to be developed

Just as its name indicates, it is a tool with which you can know and observe how the end user views the application. This means that, for example, if you create an application for a mobile operating system directly from your desktop computer, even on that different platform you will be able to see the operation as if you were doing it from the mobile phone.

List of the most popular software development kits

To conclude with this informative post, it is also necessary to know which are the most popular and recognized Computer Software Development Packages, today. So then we detail five of these with their main and most special particularities:

The Microsoft DirectX SDK

It is a kit developed by microsoft in order to simplify the most complex tasks, linked to multimedia. Specifically, the DirectX SDK is based on game and video programming, within the Microsoft Windows platform. Which, already has 12 versions and last update occurred in October 2018.

For its part, it should be noted that this famous SDK consists of the following application programming interfaces (API): Direct3D, DirectInput, Direct Graphics, DirectPlay, DirectMusic, DirectSound, DirectSetup, DirectML and DirectCompute, DirectX Ray tracing.

android sdk

This is the Android Development Kit, which is used to develop mobile apps on an emulator of the renowned Android operating systemtaking into account that it will always be emulated in the Java computer language.

Among its most important hosted functions, we find an API (a clear example is the REST API), as well as an IDE that translates the code into machine language and also an emulator where you can see the direct result.

In this sense, it is used to create applications for Android, mainly. Which, you can get by downloading the ADT Bundle that does not need any configuration or, from the Eclipse page and downloading the IDE there, you can add the ADT Android plugin. Taking into account that the SDK even has very helpful tutorials.

Source SDK

It is based on a tool or Software Development Kit designed by Valve Corporation, in which you can create mods and maps for Source engine games. In other words, this virtual briefcase has been established especially for players who use the Source engine and so that, with it, they could easily create your own maps, modify faces or create them.

In addition to this, the Source SDK also contains the necessary resources so that its users can view models with its Face Poser and Model Viewer tools. It should be noted that, in order to create maps, normally the Valve Hammer Editor is used.

Turbo pascal

Although it is currently discontinued, this SDK is still one of the most iconic in history. Which refers to a computer application development system that adds an integrated development environment or IDE, in addition to a compiler; specifically for the famous Pascal programming language.

In that sense, Turbo Pascal was released in 1983 for MS-DOS, CP/M and CP/M-86, later to be referred to as Microsoft Windows and for many years, managed to be classified as the most widespread and booming version of the Pascal language. It should be noted that it was led by Philippe Kahn and developed by Borland.

Microsoft .NET

It was developed by Microsoft and Xamarinlaunched in 2002 and its latest stable version was released in 2019. Thus, it consists of a framework that emphasizes network transparency and has hardware platform independence, thus facilitating effective development of applications of any kind.

Being an SDK designed as a horizontal strategy by the company, where all its products could be introduced. That is, both the operating system and also the market tools and all this.

Now, its main framework components are: the base class library (BCL), the common runtime environment for languages ​​(CLR) and the set of programming languages. Taking into account that some of the languages ​​developed for the .NET work environment are: C#, C++, Visual Basic .NET, Delphi (Object Pascal), F#, J#, Perl, Python, Fortran, Prolog, Cobol and PowerBuilder.