Deciphering the software development kit

A software development kit (SDK) is a set of tools and files used to develop and debug. These tools include compilers, linkers, debuggers, external library headers, and binaries, and may include custom utilities and applications. This set of programming tools is called a toolchain.

In embedded development, the toolchain is often composed of cross-tools, or tools executed on one architecture that produces a binary for use in another architecture. For example, a gcc binary that runs on an x86-64-compatible machine and produces one binary for an ARM machine is a cross-compiler. When the tool and resultant binary are executed in the same architecture, it is called a native build.

Usually, when we work on a custom source code and use external libraries, for example, libusb or libgl, these libraries are used to build at runtime. The custom source may be built against the library header files, and the binary may be located somewhere during the execution. The...