C++ Core Guidelines Explained: Best Practices for Modern C++

Chapter 9

Performance

Cippi’s performance test

Performance or low latency is the sweet spot for C++, right? Therefore, I’m quite surprised that only a quarter of the 20 rules to performance have substantial content. Hence, I have to improvise a little to make a story out of the existing guidelines. The performance rules of the C++ Core Guidelines start with rules for wrong optimizations, continue with rules about wrong assumptions, and end with rules to enable optimization.

Wrong optimizations

• Per.1: Don’t optimize without reason

• Per.2: Don’t optimize prematurely

• Per.3: Don’t optimize something that’s not performance critical

A famous ...