Dev Tools in the Desert

 Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending Intel’s annual software conference for EMEA. It’s always held in a wonderful and historic place – this time in Marrakesh – and there is always a lot of clear pertinent information there to be had about Intel’s software development tools.

The big news this year was INDE, Intel’s new Integrated Native Developer Experience – which is now in beta. This is a native cross-platform development suite supporting Java and C++ native tools and samples for Android and Windows. It integrates into the top IDEs and also supports both Intel and ARM architectures. It can be run on any Windows 8 to 8.1 host system, and targets Android 4.3 and up devices.

 What about Apple, one might ask. Have we forgotten the pioneer so quickly? No, no. For OSX developers, as well as everyone else, Intel has launched its XDK, a development kit for targeting any cross platform web app using HTML5. The goal is to cover all bases with Intel’s XDK, while providing native support through INDE.

 But Intel has not been content to play in the well-traveled landscape of mobile development today. Also announced was Intel’s System Studio. This is a complete toolset aimed squarely at the Internet of Things (which is yet to come but is well on the way). With System Studio you can create system software including firmware, OS, driver and middleware for dedicated devices.

It was a full conference with some enlightening looks at development tools that rival anyone’s. Intel’s development tools group has done some impressive things over the last year, and that was very evident.