The Android NDK provides tools that allow Android application developers to embed components that make use of native code in their Android applications.
The Android NDK is a companion tool to the Android SDK that lets Android application developers build portions of their apps in native code. It is designed for use only in conjunction with the Android SDK, so if you have not already installed the Android 1.5 SDK, please do so before downloading the NDK.
The Native Development Kit comes with a series of cross-toolchains (compilers, linkers, etc..) that you can use to create native ARM binaries.
It provides a set of system headers for stable native APIs that are guaranteed to be supported in all later releases of the platform:
· libc (C library) headers
· libm (math library) headers
· JNI interface headers
· libz (Zlib compression) headers
· liblog (Android logging) header
· A Minimal set of headers for C++ support
The NDK also provides a build system that lets you work efficiently with your sources, without having to handle the toolchain/platform/CPU/ABI details. You create very short build files to describe which sources to compile and which Android application will use them — the build system compiles the sources and places the shared libraries directly in your application project.
What's New in This Release:
Important changes:
· Added support for Android 4.3 (API level 18). For more information, see STABLE-APIS.html and new code examples in samples/gles3jni/README.
· Added headers and libraries for OpenGL ES 3.0, which is supported by Android 4.3 (API level 18) and higher.
· Added GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 4.8 compiler to the NDK.
· Added Clang 3.3 support. The NDK_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION=clang build option now picks Clang 3.3 by default.
· Updated GNU Project Debugger (GDB) to support python 2.7.5.
· Added MCLinker to support Windows hosts. Since ld.gold is the default where available, you must add -fuse-ld=mcld in LOCAL_LDFLAGS or APP_LDFLAGS to enable MCLinker.
· Added ndk-depends tool which prints ELF library dependencies.
Important bug fixes:
· Fixed potential event handling issue in android_native_app_glue.
· Fixed ARM/GCC-4.7 build to generate sufficient alignment for NEON load and store instructions VST and VLD.
· Fixed a GCC 4.4.3/4.6/4.7 internal compiler error (ICE) for a...