Rate perl   xs
 perl  386/s   -- -67%
 xs   1179/s 206%   --

##</code><code>##

use strictures;
use Template;
use Benchmark "cmpthese";

my $tt2 = Template->new();
my $template = do { local $/; <DATA> };

cmpthese 10_000, {
    xs => sub {
        $tt2->process(\qq{[% USE MultiMarkdown(implementation => "XS") -%] $template},
                      {}, \my $toss)
            or die $tt2->error; },
    perl => sub {
        $tt2->process(\qq{[% USE MultiMarkdown(implementation => "PP") -%] $template},
                      {}, \my $toss)
            or die $tt2->error; } };

__DATA__
[% FILTER multimarkdown %]
An h1 header
============

Use 3 dashes---for an em-dash. Use 2 dashes for ranges (ex. "it's all
in chapters 12--14"). Three dots ... will be converted to an ellipsis.
Bulleted list--

  * this one
  * that one
  * the other one

> Block quotes are written like so.

Paragraphs are separated by a blank line. Obviously.
[% END %]

##</code><code>##

 wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/A/AN/ANDREWF/Text-MultiMarkdown-XS-0.001_03.tar.gz
 gnutar xpfvz Text-MultiMarkdown-XS-0.001_03.tar.gz
 cd Text-MultiMarkdown-XS-0.001_03
 # add "use IO::Handle;" to Makefile.PL
 make Makefile.PL
 make
 make test
 make install
 # Might need "sudo make install"