code: @Override
  	public ByteArrayList fromStream(final InputStream is) throws IOException {
  		final int length = Util.readVByte(is);
  		buffer.size(length);
  		final int actual = is.read(buffer.elements(), 0, length);
  		if (actual != length) throw new IOException("Asked for " + length + " but got " + actual);
  		return buffer;
  	}
docs: A serializer-deserializer for byte arrays that write the array length using variable-length byte encoding,
  and the writes the content of the array.