An allocated buffer suitable for image data. Compared to a Vec of all
samples, it restricts the possible data types but on the other hand focusses on
a more efficient interface to casting the data or rearranging the contents.
The buffer types provided provide several utility operations out of the box, or they can be used as internal structures on which a more concrete interface is built.
After some discussion it
was concluded that there is likely no safe way to reinterpret the allocation of
a Vec<T> for a different Vec<U>, except in a very restricted set of cases.
This includes grouping samples in logic pixel structs, even if those are
annotated #[repr(C)] or alike. This is hardly the fault of Vec<_>, as
images and the necessary transmutations of the representative binary data are
far from general but Vec must be.
It is not optimized to provide nd-algebra or other matrix style operations. This firstly keeps the implementation complexity low, allows other implementation details, and separates concerns. If you nevertheless find it useful for such purposes, rest assured that we find this incredibly cool even though we may not accept PRs to introduce additional complexity motivated solely by such use. Rather, use the code and free license to shape it to those other needs.