diff --git a/src/mzscheme/src/number.c b/src/mzscheme/src/number.c
index 56f75b253f..0318615d80 100644
--- a/src/mzscheme/src/number.c
+++ b/src/mzscheme/src/number.c
@@ -613,21 +613,12 @@ double scheme_real_to_double(Scheme_Object *r)
 }
 
 static
-/*   Inlining seems to trip over a bug in gcc 3.4.x, 
-     and it's not worth the trouble.
-   #ifndef NO_INLINE_KEYWORD
-   # ifndef DONT_INLINE_NZERO_TEST
-   MSC_IZE(inline)
-   # endif
-   #endif */
+#ifndef NO_INLINE_KEYWORD
+MSC_IZE(inline)
+#endif
 int minus_zero_p(double d)
 {
-  /* Relies on 4-byte "int": */
-  if (((int *) mzALIAS &d)[0] == ((int *) mzALIAS &scheme_floating_point_nzero)[0]
-      && ((int *) mzALIAS &d)[1] == ((int *) mzALIAS &scheme_floating_point_nzero)[1])
-    return 1;
-
-  return 0;
+  return (1 / d) < 0;
 }
 
 int scheme_minus_zero_p(double d)
diff --git a/src/mzscheme/src/numstr.c b/src/mzscheme/src/numstr.c
index bd831b02f0..4729bed989 100644
--- a/src/mzscheme/src/numstr.c
+++ b/src/mzscheme/src/numstr.c
@@ -1917,7 +1917,7 @@ static Scheme_Object *real_to_bytes (int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
     size = SCHEME_INT_VAL(argv[1]);
   else
     size = 0;
-  if ((size != 2) && (size != 4) &&(size != 8))
+  if ((size != 4) && (size != 8))
     scheme_wrong_type("real->floating-point-bytes", "exact 4 or 8", 1, argc, argv);
 
   if (argc > 2)
diff --git a/src/mzscheme/src/strops.inc b/src/mzscheme/src/strops.inc
index 8001da0a51..cd27e05189 100644
--- a/src/mzscheme/src/strops.inc
+++ b/src/mzscheme/src/strops.inc
@@ -103,11 +103,6 @@ X_(make, string) (int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
 
   len = scheme_extract_index("make-" XSTRINGSTR, 0, argc, argv, -1, 0);
 
-  if (len == -1) {
-    scheme_raise_out_of_memory("make-" XSTRINGSTR, "making " XSTR "string of length %s",
-			       scheme_make_provided_string(argv[0], 0, NULL));
-  }
-
   if (argc == 2) {
     if (!CHARP(argv[1]))
       scheme_wrong_type("make-" XSTRINGSTR, CHAR_STR, 1, argc, argv);
@@ -115,6 +110,11 @@ X_(make, string) (int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
   } else
     fill = 0;
 
+  if (len == -1) {
+    scheme_raise_out_of_memory("make-" XSTRINGSTR, "making " XSTR "string of length %s",
+			       scheme_make_provided_string(argv[0], 0, NULL));
+  }
+
   str = X(scheme_alloc, _string)(len, fill);
   return str;
 }