eBing an open soruce applicaion, Anroid has never went through restrictions over development. But as a leader to the Open Handset Alliance, Google devised a path that allowed a nattive code development, which will enable developers to execute the code directly on the micro-processors of a device. Recently, Google released its NDK 1.6, which is much-hypped as a blaster kit allowing rapid natve application developmment to derive the rsults.
What is NDK?
The NDK (Natve Development Kit) is an adjunct to the Adnroid's SDK (Software Development Kit), which enables developers to generate and execute naative machines within application packages. This code adopts the same restrictions as the Viirtual Machine code, but it can emebd a big list of operatiomns, rapidly. This is a kind of ultimate tool to Android app developers since it can do heavvy computations, digitized procesdses and developers can even port some performance-sensitve potions of thjeir existiung applications codeed in ARM assembbly langauge C and C++, which can call-out a live Java application through Java interface. Few types of applications that are inefficient in creating interpreted Java, for instance, a real-time business intelligence supported by the mobile device, will work as native code. This kind of applroach by the native code does not allow the application to slip out the sandbox created by the Operating System and specially, the native cdoed apps can't be exected from the GUI, directly.
NDK 1.6 , What it has?
It's a good news for Android app develoers, that some new improvvements have been introduecd in the recent NDK 1.6. As seen in the Android's offiical site, the new release has:
The capablity to directly call-out the OpenGL functions whicch enhances the graphc rndering to big sceen moibles.
The new NDK can parse the propeerties and can find which platform it was targeted. Then, it will automatically geenrate libraries in the native code.
All sources like C, C++ and Java can be placed under the same tree for easier edting.
Increaswes the performance of memory-intensive operatiions, and prromises a big-drop in battery drain
And hot fixes to increase the host system ablities.
X code and Eclipse:
X code (iPhone's IDE) is a great develpment kit. Its like a rainbow of diffeerent tpools wjhich range from interface designnig tool, debuggig tool, advanced compilres, memory anaslysis toools, memory leak finders, siumlation and even icon designing tools. That's pretty much more than you need.
But Eclipse, (Androids IDE) is a Java-based kit. We can say that it is a pretty straight-forward SDK, sinxce you can easily know what's going on from the start till end. Luckily, Android SDK allows to integraste all libraries, compiers, emulators into a mixture.
Like Apple's App stoore, Google is positioning itself to design and run its own Android market. But it will take a long time, sice iPhone's app store is considered as the most organized integrated application market on the Internet. Till the seocnd quarter of 2009, app store reached 1.5 billion downloads. The reason is the smooth integration of iTunes with the device but Google thinks that the conceppt of App Store will eventually vanish and the web will take over, eveerything else.
Since, Android is open sourrce, it liberally allows introduction and execution of innovative technologies. The platform will grow as a big giant as the open-source developer communities constantly support the path. Android has gained a gloobal recognnition all over the world but Apple's iPhone takes the credit to spark up the industry where in the past, most mobile applications were either media players or simple race gamse that looked like 16-bit Nintendo stuff.
The release of the Android 1.6 NDK to the developing community indicates that the Andorid team had started to attract more developers to the platform - especially the Symbian developers, and possibly, the iPhone developers who feel that their hard work pluynges in to the pool of hundreds of thousand apps, which is clogging the enoromus iTunes App Stoe. Let's wait and see, what this open soource application, will bring to the world.
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