Added some optimized serialization overloads for std::vectors of

characters to take advantage of the fact that you can just write
the contents of memory out in this case.

dlib/serialize.h

@@ -724,6 +724,76 @@ namespace dlib
         { throw serialization_error(e.info + "\n   while deserializing object of type std::vector"); }
     }
 
+// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+    template <typename alloc>
+    void serialize (
+        const std::vector<char,alloc>& item,
+        std::ostream& out
+    )
+    {
+        try
+        { 
+            const unsigned long size = static_cast<unsigned long>(item.size());
+            serialize(size,out); 
+            out.write(&item[0], item.size());
+        }
+        catch (serialization_error& e)
+        { throw serialization_error(e.info + "\n   while serializing object of type std::vector"); }
+    }
+
+    template <typename alloc>
+    void deserialize (
+        std::vector<char, alloc>& item,
+        std::istream& in
+    )
+    {
+        try 
+        { 
+            unsigned long size;
+            deserialize(size,in); 
+            item.resize(size);
+            in.read(&item[0], item.size());
+        }
+        catch (serialization_error& e)
+        { throw serialization_error(e.info + "\n   while deserializing object of type std::vector"); }
+    }
+
+// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+    template <typename alloc>
+    void serialize (
+        const std::vector<unsigned char,alloc>& item,
+        std::ostream& out
+    )
+    {
+        try
+        { 
+            const unsigned long size = static_cast<unsigned long>(item.size());
+            serialize(size,out); 
+            out.write((char*)&item[0], item.size());
+        }
+        catch (serialization_error& e)
+        { throw serialization_error(e.info + "\n   while serializing object of type std::vector"); }
+    }
+
+    template <typename alloc>
+    void deserialize (
+        std::vector<unsigned char, alloc>& item,
+        std::istream& in
+    )
+    {
+        try 
+        { 
+            unsigned long size;
+            deserialize(size,in); 
+            item.resize(size);
+            in.read((char*)&item[0], item.size());
+        }
+        catch (serialization_error& e)
+        { throw serialization_error(e.info + "\n   while deserializing object of type std::vector"); }
+    }
+
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
     inline void serialize (

dlib/test/serialize.cpp

@@ -504,6 +504,31 @@ namespace
     }
 
 
+    template <typename T>
+    void test_vector (
+    )
+    {
+        std::vector<T> a, b;
+
+        for (int i = -10; i < 30; ++i)
+        {
+            a.push_back(i);
+        }
+
+        ostringstream sout;
+        dlib::serialize(a, sout);
+        istringstream sin(sout.str());
+
+        dlib::deserialize(b, sin);
+
+
+        DLIB_TEST(a.size() == b.size());
+        DLIB_TEST(a.size() == 40);
+        for (unsigned long i = 0; i < a.size(); ++i)
+        {
+            DLIB_TEST(a[i] == b[i]);
+        }
+    }
 
 
 
@@ -526,6 +551,9 @@ namespace
         )
         {
             serialize_test();
+            test_vector<char>();
+            test_vector<unsigned char>();
+            test_vector<int>();
         }
     } a;