Now that all the call sites are expecting a size_t instead of an int
length field, it's no longer particularly difficult to make it
actually return the pointer,length pair in the form of a ptrlen.
It would be nice to say that simplifies call sites because those
ptrlens can all be passed straight along to other ptrlen-consuming
functions. Actually almost none of the call sites are like that _yet_,
but this makes it possible to move them in that direction in future
(as part of my general aim to migrate ptrlen-wards as much as I can).
But also it's just nicer to keep the pointer and length together in
one variable, and not have to declare them both in advance with two
extra lines of boilerplate.
59f7b24b9d