[Patch] Fix istream::ignore + minor things

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

"Damour, James A" <James.Damour@dfa.state.ny.us> writes:

| If I understand your position correctly, you recommend against the use
| of the __builtin_expect function except when performance data shows a
| clear improvement.  Put a different way, you prefer brevity and clarity
| in the source over some unproven performance improvement.  Thus, I
| believe that your answer to my question is, "unless the performance
| improvement is demonstrated to be substantial, the more simple construct
| has greater benefit".

Yes, that summary is correct.

-- Gaby