[Patch] Fix istream::ignore + minor things

[Martin Sebor]

Paolo Carlini wrote:
> Martin Sebor wrote:
> 
>> FWIW, in my experiments with gcc 3.2 on IPF, the gcc optimizer
>> didn't seem to take any noticeable advantage of the hint.
> 
> 
> Thanks for your detailed data, actually the first I can actually see with
> my eyes about this issue.
> 
> Well, the first observation is obvious: nothing about x86, x86-64 or
> powerpc, something a little more, popular, so to speak ;) ?

I chose IPF over IA32 because the processor's instruction set
includes branch prediction hints (plus, pretty much anybody has
access to an IA32 box so if they're interested they can easily
see the effect of the hint there :). I don't have access to AMD
systems and I don't have a recent gcc on PPC (and I don't have
the time to build it).

Martin