Serialize and Deserialize with serde

[hoijui]

I would like to be able to serialize and deserialize Pattern with serde.
It is of course always possible with the newtype pattern,
but it would be nice if this functionality would come with this crate directly, or at least with a companion-create, so everyone can use the same implementation without reinventing the wheel, and also being compatible amongst each other.

I imagine the solution would be one of:

• newtype
• derive (similar to https://github.com/tailhook/serde-regex for Regex), or
• directly available on Pattern, either
  • by default or
  • only when activating a feature

What do you say?

[tgross35]

The thing to do here is to use #[serde::deserialize_with = ...], which also lets you pass the flags you need. In the future we may not guarantee to preserve the original string, so serialization wouldn't be possible. If you need serialization you can preserve the original string separately or, for now, #[serde::serialize_with = ...] with Pattern::as_str.

A bit more discussion at #174 (comment).