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I'm right there with you, David. There's a huge difference between SDK
reference information and a SDK user guide. The former details what's
in there and (ideally) how to implement them. The latter should
contain more of the conceptual info and theory about why you want to
use any of this stuff in the first place, as well as how at a high
level with examples.
As to the difference between an API and a SDK, an SDK contains one or
more API, plus programming tools, plus documentation.
On 7/28/05, David Castro <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> If I was to go to a SDK User Guide and find the same material in there
> as in the Javadoc (or the equivalent that you're creating), I would be
> rather annoyed. I expect the SDK User Guide to have more information
> on the SDK than datatypes, method signatures, and class hierarchies. I
> expect it to have an explanation on when to use the HierarchicalTable
> versus the TreeTable, to have example code for each
> component/method/data structure, and to talk about how each of the
> things can fit together. That kind of information is what really makes
> a product's SDK useful.
>
> In fact, while there isn't a hard-and-fast rule as to what separates
> an "API" from a "SDK," in my opinion, what I describe is an SDK, where
> what you were provided (likely) is an API. I'll caveat that by saying
> that the developer may have embedded the features that I discussed in
> the HTML file that he provided you...though I'd be surprised!
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