Doesn't it suck that if you want a string pointer, and its length, in XS, you need to get the SV * and do the SvPV manually each time? Fear no more. Below typemap will give you the char * pointer, and the length. Always. 
void
Foo( str )
     char * str
PPCODE:
     Foo(str, strLen);

[download]
Change the typemap entry to your liking. Also note caching SV * to avoid numerous ST macros in SvPV macro. Who wants to calculate the same thing half a dozen times? Also less noise in your debugger with the now useless SV * being gone. 
T_STR_AND_LEN
    ".(unshift(@line, (
    'PREINIT:',
    '    unsigned long '.$var.'Len;',
    'INPUT:')),'').
    "{
        SV * TmpSV = $arg;
        $var = ($type) SvPV( TmpSV , ${\$var}Len);
    };

[download]
Warning, you must use PREINIT for your XSUBs. Lazy coders shall die.

edited: spelling

In reply to string plus length typemap hack by patcat88

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