In fact, I have never known what platform SDK is. I am very curious why there is such a term. Windows SDK is easy to understand, but what is platform SDK, and which platform is it? ? ? And I didn't read the relevant explanations in the first few pages of the platform SDK under MSDN. The following article unlocked the answer for me.
Excerpted from: https://www.cnblogs.com/kekec/p/3912148.html
Platform SDK and Windows SDK is a software development kit produced by Microsoft, which provides header files, library files, sample code, development documentation and development tools to programmers who develop software and websites on Microsoft's Windows operating system and .NET framework .
Every time Microsoft releases a major version of Windows, it releases corresponding development tools to enable developers to call the application programming interface (API) of the new operating system.
After Windows 98, this development kit was named Platform SDK.
When the Windows Vista SDK was introduced, the product was renamed the Windows SDK.
Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 SP1 is a version of Platform SDK that supports 32-bit and 64-bit application development.
It is also the last SDK to provide full support for VC 6 development (if you are still developing with VC6, please use this version of the Platform SDK).
Like Windows, every time Microsoft updates the .NET Framework, it also releases a corresponding .NET Framework SDK .
After the release of the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 , the .NET Framework SDK was integrated into the Windows SDK.
Newer version of the Windows SDK:
Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
The Windows SDK documentation includes the following:
（1）核心SDK
（2）.NET Framework SDK
（3）IIS SDK
（4）Internet Development SDK (IE SDK)
（5）MDAC SDK
（6）Windows Installer SDK
（7）WMI SDK
（8）Windows Media Service SDK
（9）Microsoft Speech SDK
（10）DirectShow SDK
Except for .Net SDK, SDK documentation is mainly provided in C language specification, but the calling method of SDK functions has nothing to do with language and is only limited by the type system of programming language.
For class libraries like .Net framework, SDK functions are considered to be the underlying API. In addition, the SDK also installs examples to illustrate the usage of various APIs, as well as tools to assist in developing, debugging, and releasing software.
For non-PC versions of Windows, Microsoft has also released corresponding SDKs, such as: Windows Phone SDK , Kinect for Windows SDK , Surface SDK , etc.