`decode` takes a slice rather than a vec.

Also added comments for the main functions.

examples/basic.rs

@@ -20,9 +20,11 @@ fn main() {
     };
 
     let encoded: Vec<u8> = bincode::encode(&world, SizeLimit::Infinite).unwrap();
+
     // 8 bytes for the length of the vector, 4 bytes per float.
     assert_eq!(encoded.len(), 8 + 4 * 4);
-    let decoded: World = bincode::decode(encoded, SizeLimit::Infinite).unwrap();
+
+    let decoded: World = bincode::decode(encoded.as_slice()).unwrap();
 
     assert!(world == decoded);
 }

src/lib.rs

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 extern crate "rustc-serialize" as rustc_serialize;
 
-use std::io::{Buffer, MemWriter, MemReader};
+use std::io::{Buffer, MemWriter};
 use rustc_serialize::{Encodable, Decodable};
 
 pub use writer::{EncoderWriter, EncodingResult, EncodingError};
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ use writer::SizeChecker;
 
 mod writer;
 mod reader;
+#[cfg(test)] mod test;
 
 #[derive(Clone, Copy)]
 pub enum SizeLimit {
@@ -20,6 +21,10 @@ pub enum SizeLimit {
     UpperBound(u64)
 }
 
+/// Encodes an encodable object into a `Vec` of bytes.
+///
+/// If the encoding would take more bytes than allowed by `size_limit`,
+/// an error is returned.
 pub fn encode<T: Encodable>(t: &T, size_limit: SizeLimit) -> EncodingResult<Vec<u8>> {
     let mut w = MemWriter::new();
     match encode_into(t, &mut w, size_limit) {
@@ -28,10 +33,16 @@ pub fn encode<T: Encodable>(t: &T, size_limit: SizeLimit) -> EncodingResult<Vec<
     }
 }
 
-pub fn decode<T: Decodable>(b: Vec<u8>, size_limit: SizeLimit) -> DecodingResult<T> {
-    decode_from(&mut MemReader::new(b), size_limit)
+/// Decodes a slice of bytes into an object.
+pub fn decode<T: Decodable>(b: &[u8]) -> DecodingResult<T> {
+    let mut b = b;
+    decode_from(&mut b, SizeLimit::Infinite)
 }
 
+/// Encodes an object directly into a `Writer`.
+///
+/// If the encoding would take more bytes than allowed by `size_limit`, an error
+/// is returned and *no bytes* will be written into the `Writer`.
 pub fn encode_into<T: Encodable, W: Writer>(t: &T, w: &mut W, size_limit: SizeLimit) -> EncodingResult<()> {
     try!(match size_limit {
         SizeLimit::Infinite => Ok(()),
@@ -40,12 +51,16 @@ pub fn encode_into<T: Encodable, W: Writer>(t: &T, w: &mut W, size_limit: SizeLi
             t.encode(&mut size_checker)
         }
     });
+
     t.encode(&mut writer::EncoderWriter::new(w, size_limit))
 }
 
-pub fn decode_from<R: Reader+Buffer, T: Decodable>(r: &mut R, size_limit: SizeLimit) -> DecodingResult<T> {
+/// Decoes an object directly from a Buffered Reader.
+///
+/// If the provided `SizeLimit` is reached, the decode will bail immediately.
+/// A SizeLimit can help prevent an attacker from flooding your server with
+/// a neverending stream of values that runs your server out of memory.
+pub fn decode_from<R: Buffer, T: Decodable>(r: &mut R, size_limit: SizeLimit) ->
+DecodingResult<T> {
     Decodable::decode(&mut reader::DecoderReader::new(r, size_limit))
 }
-
-#[cfg(test)]
-mod test;

src/test.rs

@@ -13,13 +13,14 @@ use rustc_serialize::{
 use super::{
     encode,
     decode,
+    decode_from,
     DecodingError,
     DecodingResult
 };
 use super::SizeLimit::{Infinite, UpperBound};
 
 fn the_same<'a, V>(element: V) where V: Encodable, V: Decodable, V: PartialEq, V: Show {
-    assert!(element == decode(encode(&element, Infinite).unwrap(), Infinite).unwrap());
+    assert!(element == decode(encode(&element, Infinite).unwrap().as_slice()).unwrap());
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -178,33 +179,36 @@ fn is_invalid_bytes<T>(res: DecodingResult<T>) {
 
 #[test]
 fn decoding_errors() {
-    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<bool>(vec![0xA], Infinite));
-    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<String>(vec![0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0xFF], Infinite));
+    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<bool>(vec![0xA].as_slice()));
+    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<String>(vec![0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0xFF].as_slice()));
     // Out-of-bounds variant
     #[derive(RustcEncodable, RustcDecodable)]
     enum Test {
         One,
         Two,
     };
-    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<Test>(vec![0, 0, 0, 5], Infinite));
-    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<Option<u8>>(vec![5, 0], Infinite));
+    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<Test>(vec![0, 0, 0, 5].as_slice()));
+    is_invalid_bytes(decode::<Option<u8>>(vec![5, 0].as_slice()));
 }
 
 #[test]
 fn too_big_decode() {
     let encoded = vec![0,0,0,3];
-    let decoded: Result<u32, _> = decode(encoded, UpperBound(3));
+    let mut encoded_ref = encoded.as_slice();
+    let decoded: Result<u32, _> = decode_from(&mut encoded_ref, UpperBound(3));
     assert!(decoded.is_err());
 
     let encoded = vec![0,0,0,3];
-    let decoded: Result<u32, _> = decode(encoded, UpperBound(4));
+    let mut encoded_ref = encoded.as_slice();
+    let decoded: Result<u32, _> = decode_from(&mut encoded_ref, UpperBound(4));
     assert!(decoded.is_ok());
 }
 
 #[test]
 fn too_big_char_decode() {
     let encoded = vec![0x41];
-    let decoded: Result<char, _> = decode(encoded, UpperBound(1));
+    let mut encoded_ref = encoded.as_slice();
+    let decoded: Result<char, _> = decode_from(&mut encoded_ref, UpperBound(1));
     assert_eq!(decoded, Ok('A'));
 }