Professional C++

Chapter 17. Writing Efficient C++

The efficiency of your programs is important regardless of your application domain. If your product competes with others in the marketplace, speed can be a major differentiator: given the choice between a slower and a faster program, which one would you choose? No one would buy an operating system that takes two weeks to boot up, unless it was the only option. Even if you don't intend to sell your products, they will have users. Those users will not be happy with you if they end up wasting time waiting for your programs to complete tasks.

Now that you understand the concepts of Professional C++ design and coding, and have tackled some of the more complex facilities that the language provides, you are ready to incorporate performance into your programs. Writing efficient programs involves thought at the design level, as well as details at the implementation level. Although this chapter falls late in this book, remember to consider performance from the beginning of your program life cycle.

This chapter first provides working definitions of "efficiency" and "performance" as they relate to software, describes the two levels at which you can increase efficiency in your programs, and discusses the two major classes of applications. Specific strategies follow for writing efficient programs, including language-level optimizations and design-level guidelines. Finally, the chapter provides an in-depth discussion of profiling tools.

Overview of Performance and ...