A Software Developer Kit is a set of tools for software developers. A Software Developer Kit is a set of tools that enable the development of software applications for a particular operating system (Windows, iOS, Linux, Android) or a specific hardware platform (iPhone). A Software Developer Kit contains an integrated development environment, or IDE, which in turn includes an application for writing and editing the software code, a programming language interpreter (compiler) and a debugger. A Software Developer Kit contains examples of source code for various applications or libraries, programmer documentation, or tutorials.
Most SDKs can be downloaded for free from the Internet, so developers are encouraged to use them to develop software applications for a specific operating system.
They usually have interfaces with the relatively Spartan user, so some programmers prefer to use them in combination with development environments.
Examples of SDKs
1. PitStop Library SDK
Practically, PitStop Library is a Software Development Kit (SDK) and contains a collection of shared libraries, as well as header files, documentation, and samples that accompany them. The SDK enables simplified integration with its own workflows for prepress and digital printing, as well as web-to-print, MIS and more. The PitStop Library SDK is available to OEM Technology Partners who want to have Preflight and Auto Correction PDFs, functionally available to their customers and within their own developed solutions.
2. DirectX (SDK)
The DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK) consists of binary redistributable runtime libraries, along with documentation and accompanying headers for use in encoding. Initially, the runtime was installed only for games or explicitly by the user. The SDK is available as a free download. While the runtime is proprietary, the source code is provided for most SDK samples.
Since the release of Windows 8, the DirectX SDK has been integrated into the Windows SDK.
3. SDK Android
The Android SDK includes a complete set of development tools. These include a debugger, libraries, device emulator (based on QEMU), documentation, code samples, and tutorials. Currently supported development platforms include x86-based computers running Linux (any modern Linux desktop distribution), Mac OS X 10.4.8. The requirements also include the Java Development Kit, Apache Ant, and Python 2.2 or later.
The officially supported development environment (IDE) is Eclipse (3.2 or later) using the Android Development Tools plug-in (ADT) although developers can use any text editor to edit XML and Java files and then use tools from the command line to build and debug Android apps.
An Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007. On July 15, 2008, the Android Developer Challenge team accidentally sent an email to all Android Developer Challenge participants announcing that a new version of SDK was available in a “private” download area.
Android SDK 0.9 beta provides an upgraded and expanded API, enhanced development tools, and an updated design for the base screen. SDK or Android Software Development Kit comes as a set of basic operating system tools for each version and additional libraries for expanded capabilities (3D screen, dual-screen).