FIGURE 40.3 Eclipse is one of the most popular IDEs available.
An SDK is a set of software development tools that are focused not on one
language but on something narrower, such as one software package or
framework (for example, the Android development SDK, described in
Chapter 45, “Beginning Mobile Development for Android”). A company may
provide an SDK when it wants to encourage outsiders to write programs that
run on the company’s product, such as its platform (like a game system from
Nintendo or Sega) or operating system (like Android or iOS). Many open
source enthusiasts will not participate in writing code for these platforms, so
SDKs are less popular in this environment than they are on Windows and
other platforms. Also, depending on the software license used to release the
SDK, the potential uses of the code produced using the SDK can be limited,
and not everyone is comfortable with those limitations. However, many SDKs
are in use, and if you want to write code for a project that releases an SDK, it
is likely to contain useful code examples, tools, and documentation to make
the task much easier. Do your homework and make a choice that you are
comfortable with.
References
http://www.cprogramming.com—A useful website for learning C and C++
http://gcc.gnu.org—The main website for gcc, the GNU Compiler