Chapter 24

Writing Efficient C++

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• What “efficiency” and “performance” mean
• What kind of language-level optimizations you can use
• Which design-level guidelines you can follow to design efficient programs
• What profiling tools are

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.