Modified August 9, 2002
Here are the programs used for the efficiency measurements in my article: Learning C++ as a New Language from the May 1999 issue of "The C/C++ Users Journal:"
I used an external timer rather than including timer code in the programs themselves.
As mentioned in the article, the performance of these examples will vary with the quality of the C++ compiler used and -- usually more significantly -- with the quality of the standard library facilities used in the programs.
Part of the purpose of making these programs available is to encourage more consistent (and better) performance from standard library implementations by showing what is possible.