Originally Posted by djb

my wife is about 5ft, maybe 5'1", and her XS Troll fits her really well. Different bike, diff bars, but gives an idea.
The 26in wheels on these bikes are nice for both standover, and not having toe overlap (your toes hitting the front wheel when you turn the wheel a lot in low speed turns)
Im surprised in Toronto you can't fine a LHT to try, here in Montreal there are a few stores that physically have various surly models in store--but I guess to be fair, given its a XS or S, maybe stores can't stock these ones that won't get sold for a long time.

in any case, surly bikes tend to have longer "top tubes" than some other bikes, this affects the reach from saddle to bars, but within reason, a change of the stem, the part that holds the handlebar, and come in various lengths and angles , can fine tune your position.
Just be wary of being sold a bike taht is a bit too big for you, I've seen this so many times with women I have know over the years.

oh , as for the shorter leg, a family member has about the same difference, and yes, it will always be good to compensate for this with whatever means you can, specifically for avoiding hip rocking, and of course, proper leg muscle use and easier on the knee of the longer leg (which if you rode a bike without any compensation, you would set the seat height for the shorter leg, to not overextend it if set up for the longer leg)
As you say, workarounds and fine tuning of pedal block combined with your shoe riser insole, will deal with this properly in the future, no matter the bike--but yes, as said, long hours riding and harder work riding a heavier bike will show up bad seat positioning for knees and leg muscles, so important to get sorted no matter what.