To work around a bug in visual studio 2012, I changed the iosockstream from using

iostream::tie() to implement its "auto flush on read" feature to use the sockstreambuf's
own auto flushing mode instead.

dlib/iosockstream/iosockstream.h

@@ -10,11 +10,12 @@
 #include "../smart_pointers_thread_safe.h"
 #include "../timeout.h"
 
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-// Disable the warning about inheriting from std::iostream 'via dominance' since this warning is a warning about
-// visual studio conforming to the standard and is ignorable.  See http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/733720/inheriting-from-std-fstream-produces-c4250-warning
-// for further details if interested.
-#pragma warning(disable : 4250)
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+// Disable the warning about inheriting from std::iostream 'via dominance' since this warning is a warning about
+// visual studio conforming to the standard and is ignorable.  
+// See http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/733720/inheriting-from-std-fstream-produces-c4250-warning
+// for further details if interested.
+#pragma warning(disable : 4250)
 #endif // _MSC_VER
 
 namespace dlib
@@ -30,7 +31,6 @@ namespace dlib
         ) :
             std::iostream(0)
         {
-            tie(this);
         }
 
         iosockstream( 
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ namespace dlib
         ) :
             std::iostream(0)
         { 
-            tie(this); 
             open(addr); 
         }
 
@@ -48,7 +47,6 @@ namespace dlib
         ) :
             std::iostream(0)
         { 
-            tie(this); 
             open(addr, timeout); 
         }
 
@@ -64,6 +62,14 @@ namespace dlib
             close();
             con.reset(connect(addr));
             buf.reset(new sockstreambuf(con.get()));
+            // Note that we use the sockstreambuf's ability to autoflush instead of 
+            // telling the iostream::tie() function to tie the stream to itself even though
+            // that should work fine.  The reason we do it this way is because there is a
+            // bug in visual studio 2012 that causes a program to crash when a stream is
+            // tied to itself and then used.  See
+            // http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/772293/tying-a-c-iostream-object-to-itself-causes-a-stack-overflow-in-visual-studio-2012
+            // for further details.
+            buf->flush_output_on_read();
             rdbuf(buf.get());
             clear();
         }
@@ -76,6 +82,7 @@ namespace dlib
             close(timeout);
             con.reset(connect(addr.host_address, addr.port, timeout));
             buf.reset(new sockstreambuf(con.get()));
+            buf->flush_output_on_read();
             rdbuf(buf.get());
             clear();
         }

dlib/iosockstream/iosockstream_abstract.h

@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ namespace dlib
             WHAT THIS OBJECT REPRESENTS
                 This is an iostream object that reads/writes from a TCP network connection.
 
+                Note that any attempt to read from this stream will automatically flush the
+                stream's output buffers.  
+
             THREAD SAFETY
                 It is not safe to touch this object from more than one thread at a time.
                 Therefore, you should mutex lock it if you need to do so.  
@@ -30,9 +33,6 @@ namespace dlib
         /*!
             ensures
                 - #good() == false
-                - #tie() == this
-                  (i.e. Any attempt to read from this stream will automatically flush the
-                  stream's output buffers)
         !*/
 
         iosockstream( 
@@ -40,9 +40,6 @@ namespace dlib
         );
         /*!
             ensures
-                - #tie() == this
-                  (i.e. Any attempt to read from this stream will automatically flush the
-                  stream's output buffers)
                 - Attempts to connect to the given network address. 
                 - Calling this constructor is equivalent to calling the default constructor
                   and then invoking open(addr).
@@ -59,9 +56,6 @@ namespace dlib
         ); 
         /*!
             ensures
-                - #tie() == this
-                  (i.e. Any attempt to read from this stream will automatically flush the
-                  stream's output buffers)
                 - Attempts to connect to the given network address. 
                 - Calling this constructor is equivalent to calling the default constructor
                   and then invoking open(addr, timeout).