What is an SDK? (Software Development Kit)

let's say you want to build something a birdbath a computer like maybe your own freaking house because you're live in Vancouver and you're sick of a ten thousand percent markup on real estate sorry I got distracted there anyway you wouldn't build any of that stuff without the proper tools right I mean you can't exactly stack a bunch of lumber together and hope to live in it well the same concept is true in software development I mean sure it is possible to completely write your own code from scratch but it would be an incredibly tedious and time-consuming process for developers to do this every time they came up with a new idea I mean imagine having to plant grow and harvest your own wheat every time you wanted a delicious slice of raisin toast so in a previous episode we covered api's which are pieces of software that one program uses to interface with another making programming a heck of a lot easier but what about the front-end interface the tools that developers actually sit down and use will these often come in the form of a software development kit or SDK think of it as a virtual toolbox but instead of pliers and a hammer you'll typically find files called libraries which are essentially pieces of code that help a program play nicely with whatever platform it's on such as the libraries in the Windows SDK which allow programs to make calls to the operating system to get it to perform certain functions easily without having to tediously code them manually other common SDK tools include visual editors so that a developer can design and layout graphical elements like buttons and text boxes easily with tutorials and sample code so that a developer can become familiar with the platform that they're coding on and debuggers that help developers find errors and omissions in their code but SDKs aren't limited to just making programs on Windows or smartphone apps an individual SDK is often a heavily customized or their platform such as the Cosmo SDK from the robotics company Anki which can be used to harness the robots camera for facial recognition and spatial awareness animate the robot to make it say or do certain things or plan out a movement path to make it easy for the robot to avoid obstacles all with just a few lines of code instead of having to create from scratch and become an expert in artificial intelligence and even on other platforms you aren't limited to just using one SDK and only one SDK if you're looking to create something like the next whatsapp or Instagram for example there are lots of different iOS and Android SDKs that specialize in different types of apps there are chat focused SDKs but make it easy to create notifications or speech balloons image editing SDKs that allow you to make certain photo effects and filters available without having to code them yourself and video chat SDKs that make it easy for the app to talk to your phone's camera indeed the wide availability of different kinds of SDKs today means that you don't need to have graduated with honors from a computer science program in order to create your own software though some knowledge of programming languages is often necessary specifically Java for Android objective-c or Swift for iOS and c-sharp for Windows are great places to start but if you take the time to learn how to code SDKs could make it possible for you to land a gig as a developer somewhere or even hit the top of the Play Store as an indie app developer though if you don't hit the top of the Play Store maybe it's that your idea was wrong so here's a free suggestion how about a Linus's wise words of the day app so my wisdom can follow you and all of your downloaders everywhere you go ever wanted a smart happy companion without having to deal with refilling a food bowl cleaning a litter box or putting down the toilet seat when you're done then check out the Cosmo bianchi the coolest robot ever invented TM not only is cosmo intelligent but he also has a personality that grows and changes based on how you interact with them and he can do all kinds of cool tricks including act happy to see you and act sad or frustrated if you can't be too in a game Cosmo even has his own software development kit so if you're interested in development you can use the Cosmo SDK to tap into advanced features like face detection and path planning or to connect with social media or smart home services on keys python-based SDK is simple to use yet powerful enough to open up a world of possibilities with Cosmo you just need a phone Android or iOS and a laptop and you are ready to rock out of the box so to learn more head over to on keep calm Cosmo is only available in the United States so if that's where you live then great you can pick up your own Cosmo for just one $79.99 and remember that Anki is now offering free standard shipping on all orders so thanks for watching guys if you like this video like it if you just liked it dislike it if you I want to check out our other channels we'll have the link somewhere and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any videos like this one oh right one last thing leave a comment you have suggestions for future fast as possible

Channel: Techquickie

Views: 350,279

Rating: 4.9215608 out of 5

Keywords: sdk, android sdk, ios sdk, windows sdk, debugging, gui, graphical elements, graphical user interface, app, programming, coding, software development kit

Id: 676FMfkYxOk

Length: 5min 31sec (331 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2016