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Being an open source application, Android has never went through restrictions over development. But as a leader to the Open Handset Alliance, Google devised a path that allowed a native 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-hyped as a blaster kit allowing rapid native application development to derive the results.

What is NDK?

The NDK (Native Development Kit) is an adjunct to the Android’s SDK (Software Development Kit), which enables developers to generate and execute native machines within application packages. This code adopts the same restrictions as the Virtual Machine code, but it can embed a big list of operations, rapidly. This is a kind of ultimate tool to Android app developers since it can do heavy computations, digitized processes and developers can even port some performance-sensitive portions of their existing applications coded in ARM assembly language 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 approach by the native code does not allow the application to slip out the sandbox created by the Operating System and specially, the native coded apps can’t be executed from the GUI, directly.

NDK 1.6, What it has?

It’s a good news for Android app developers, that some new improvements have been introduced in the recent NDK 1.6. As seen in the Android’s official site, the new release has:

The capability to directly call-out the OpenGL functions which enhances the graphic rendering to big screen mobiles.

The new NDK can parse the properties and can find which platform it was targeted. Then, it will automatically generate libraries in the native code. All sources like C, C++ and Java can be placed under the same tree for easier editing. Increases the performance of memory-intensive operations, and promises a big-drop in battery drain

And hot fixes to increase the host system abilities.

X code and Eclipse:

X code (iPhone’s IDE) is a great development kit. Its like a rainbow of different tools which range from interface designing tool, debugging tool, advanced compilers, memory analysis tools, memory leak finders, simulation and even icon designing tools. That’s pretty much more than you need.

But Eclipse, (Android