Software Development Kit - what is it?

Software development kits, or SDKs for short, exist for many hardware and software. We explain to you exactly what that is in this practical tip.

What are software development kits?

Software development kits are required for various purposes in all areas of software development:

• Software development kits are packages that provide program codes, interfaces and usually also instructions. It can be used to develop software that works on a specific operating system, hardware, or in combination with specific software
• To develop suitable software for certain platforms and hardware, hardware developers provide SDKs. Often, only licenses are given to professional developers. In some cases, versions for amateurs and hobby developers are also provided. We present an SDK for rooting Android in this practical tip. Microsoft provides students with "DreamSpark" SDKs for Windows Phone free of charge.
• Plug-ins are also programmed with SDKs - for example VST plug-ins for music sequencers or image editing plug-ins for Paint.NET.
• Open source software such as "Open Office", Firefox and "Foobar 2000" continue to develop primarily because professionals and amateurs use software development kits to develop designs, functions, extensions, add-ons and plug-ins and make them available to all users.

We explain more technical terms from software development such as "Direct X" and "OpenAL" in our practical tips.