Question

I was thinking of something like:

// Runs algorithm() n times during an amount of seconds.
void run(int seconds) {
  clock_t start = clock();
  clock_t current = start;
  while(double (current - start) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC <= seconds) {
    algorithm();
    current = clock();
  }   
}

I chose clock() over time() to avoid accounting time when the process sleeps.
I would like to know if there is a better way to achieve this, without using chrono.

Answer 1

STLSoft has a performance_counter which works on UNIX and windows platforms. The library is header only and only requires a simple include:

#include <platformstl/performance/performance_counter.hpp>

void run(int seconds) {
  platformstl::performance_counter pc;
  platformstl::performance_counter::interval_type current = 0;
  pc.start();
  while ((current / 1000) <= seconds){
    algorithm();
    current += pc.stop_get_milliseconds_and_restart();
  }
}

You could also look at the source for hints on making your own.