diff --git a/libs/program_options/src/options_description.cpp b/libs/program_options/src/options_description.cpp
index 343bd30..22aaeb3 100644
--- a/libs/program_options/src/options_description.cpp
+++ b/libs/program_options/src/options_description.cpp
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ namespace boost { namespace program_options {
             else
             {
                 // only one tab per paragraph allowed
-                if (count(par.begin(), par.end(), '\t') > 1)
+                if (par.find('\t', par_indent+1) != string::npos)
                 {
                     boost::throw_exception(program_options::error(
                         "Only one tab per paragraph is allowed in the options description"));
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ namespace boost { namespace program_options {
                     // Take care to never increment the iterator past
                     // the end, since MSVC 8.0 (brokenly), assumes that
                     // doing that, even if no access happens, is a bug.
-                    unsigned remaining = static_cast<unsigned>(std::distance(line_begin, par_end));
+                    unsigned remaining = static_cast<unsigned>(par_end - line_begin);
                     string::const_iterator line_end = line_begin +
                         ((remaining < line_length) ? remaining : line_length);

@@ -479,20 +479,17 @@ namespace boost { namespace program_options {
                         ((line_end < par_end) && (*line_end != ' ')))
                     {
                         // find last ' ' in the second half of the current paragraph line
-                        string::const_iterator last_space =
-                            find(reverse_iterator<string::const_iterator>(line_end),
-                                 reverse_iterator<string::const_iterator>(line_begin),
-                                 ' ')
-                            .base();
+                        string::size_type last_space_pos = par.find(' ', line_end - par.begin());

-                        if (last_space != line_begin)
+                        if (last_space_pos != string::npos &&
+                            last_space_pos > (line_begin - par.begin()))
                         {
-                            // is last_space within the second half ot the
+                            // is last space within the second half of the
                             // current line
-                            if (static_cast<unsigned>(std::distance(last_space, line_end)) <
+                            if (static_cast<unsigned>(par.length() - last_space_pos) <
                                 (line_length / 2))
                             {
-                                line_end = last_space;
+                                line_end = par.begin() + last_space_pos;
                             }
                         }
                     } // prevent chopped words
diff --git a/libs/program_options/src/value_semantic.cpp b/libs/program_options/src/value_semantic.cpp
index 5314029..647550e 100644
--- a/libs/program_options/src/value_semantic.cpp
+++ b/libs/program_options/src/value_semantic.cpp
@@ -368,7 +368,8 @@ namespace boost { namespace program_options {
         string error_template  = original_error_template;
         // remove duplicates using std::set
         std::set<std::string>   alternatives_set (m_alternatives.begin(), m_alternatives.end());
-        std::vector<std::string> alternatives_vec (alternatives_set.begin(), alternatives_set.end());
+        std::vector<std::string> alternatives_vec;
+        copy(alternatives_set.begin(), alternatives_set.end(), back_inserter(alternatives_vec));

         error_template += " and matches ";
         // Being very cautious: should be > 1 alternative!