To program we need a series of tools, libraries, development environments (IDEs), documentation, and examples or code commonly used for the functions that match in any application.
Many times, companies that have platforms for software Their own, such as operating systems or applications, decide to put all these tools together in a single package to facilitate third-party development, which can be purchased or downloaded for free over the Internet. It is what is called:
SDK, which is the toolkit for software necessary to develop programs that interact with another software via an API
The availability of an API in the software (program or system) with which the creations made through the SDK must interact is essential, since, if not, neither the SDK itself, nor the system, nor the objective of the programming makes sense.
The contents of the SDK focus, in fact, on the exploitation of said API, and although there are parts of those listed above that we may not find (such as programming environments, taking advantage of other existing ones), interaction with the API will be essential. .
We have SDKs for many and diverse systems, such as embedded systems, mobile systems, mobile applications, or to interact with specific products from various companies.
Most are introduced to the market by the same companies that produce the products of software and hardware with which they interact, due to the interest generated in them by third parties developing products in this regard.
The SDKs can have completely free licenses, allowing their redistribution and even customization, or they can be subject to a proprietary license and, therefore, restrictive on what can be done with them.
In fact, the type of license does not enter into the definition of what an SDK is or is not, so we can find a bit of everything.
The SDK license can sometimes also mark the licenses with which the applications created with it can be distributed. Thus, for example, we can find the case of an SDK with a proprietary license, which prohibits the creation of software under free licenses, or vice versa.
SDKs are also usually linked to a greater or lesser degree of exclusivity to a specific programming language
Which may be in the interest of the company that publishes the SDK, since the language is the one used by it, it is its property, or it seeks to make it popular among developers, promote it.
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