Approaching low-latency application development in C++

In this section, we will discuss the higher-level ideas to keep in mind when trying to build low-latency applications in C++. Overall, the ideas are to understand the architecture that your application runs on, your application use cases that are latency-sensitive, the programming language of your choice (C++ in this case), how to work with the development tools (the compiler, linker, etc.) and how to measure application performance in practice to understand which parts of the application to optimize first.

Coding for correctness first, optimizing second

For low-latency applications, correct behavior of the application under different use cases and scenarios and robust handling of edge conditions is still the primary focus. A fast application that does not do what we need is useless, so the best approach when it comes to developing a low-latency application is to first code for correctness, not speed. Once the application...