Performance Library
[Libraries]

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Detailed Description

Created: 22nd May 2006 Updated: 13th March 2007.

This library contains classes that assist in the measurement of program performance.

The library consists primarily of different performance counter classes that are all structurally conformant about a single simple interface. These including the following:

• The unixstl::performance_counter class implements timing in terms of the UNIX gettimeofday() API function.
• The unixstl::processtimes_counter class implements timing in terms of the UNIX API function getrusage(), which provides timing information for a given process, rather than as elapsed time.
• The winstl::highperformance_counter class implements timing in terms of the Windows High Performance Counter function QueryPerformanceCounter(), which provides the highest possible accuracy of all timer functions provided by the Win32 API, but which is not guaranteed to be available on all Windows platforms.
• The winstl::multimedia_counter class implements timing in terms of the Windows Multimedia API function timeGetTime().
• The winstl::processtimes_counter class implements timing in terms of the Windows API function GetProcessTimes(), which provides timing information for a given process, rather than as elapsed time.
• The winstl::threadtimes_counter class implements timing in terms of the Windows API function GetThreadTimes(), which provides timing information for a given thread, rather than as elapsed time.
• The winstl::tick_counter class implements timing in terms of the GetTickCount() function, which is guaranteed to be available on all Windows platforms and has a very low call cost, but has low resolution.
• The winstl::performance_counter class implements timing by attempting to use QueryPerformanceCounter() if available, otherwise defaulting to using GetTickCount().

Remarks:

A detailed discussion of the costs and benefits of the various Windows timing functions, and of the implementation of the WinSTL classes in the Performance library is given in the article: Win32 Performance Measurement Options, Matthew Wilson, Windows Developer Network, Volume 2 Number 5, May 2003.

Classes
class	performance_counter_initialiser
	A class adaptor that initialises a performance counter. More...
class	performance_counter_scope
	Scopes the measurement period for a performance counter. More...
class	performance_counter
	A performance counter using gettimeofday(). More...
class	processtimes_counter
	A performance counter that provides process-specific performance timings. More...
class	highperformance_counter
	A performance counter that uses the high performance hardware counter on the host machine. More...
class	multimedia_counter
	A low-cost, low-resolution performance counter. More...
class	performance_counter
	A performance counter that uses the most accurate measurement APIs available on the host machine. More...
class	processtimes_counter
	A performance counter that provides process-specific performance timings. More...
class	systemtime_counter
	Performance counter that uses the Windows GetSystemTime() function. More...
class	threadtimes_counter
	A performance counter that provides thread-specific performance timings. More...
class	tick_counter
	A low-cost, low-resolution performance counter. More...