# Do it using substr - no reason to use a pattern match since
  # we know where we are looking and what we are looking for

  if (substr($template, $start - MINX + 1, MINX) ne 'X' x MINX) {
    ${$options{ErrStr}} = "The template must contain at least ".
      MINX . " 'X' characters\n";
    return ();
  }