I stumbled on a problem that I can't solve efficiently using only STL. In order not to spam multiple forums, here is the link to the topic I started:

http://cpptea.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=138

Basically, I parse a big big XML files and few simple functions are critical. The one that I discuss there has task to take content from an input stream until it passes a certain pattern. The taken content should be stored in the given string, but without this ending pattern.

There I mentioned a solution that does not use STL for the critical operations and does the job much faster than I could imagine when using STL on my level of knowing it.

You may feel free to cast your comments or suggestions here.