diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 57cdd84..10a1b9c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ else
 GENFLAGS =  -fPIC -O3  -march=native -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -Wshadow -Wno-unused
 endif # debug
 CFLAGS =  -std=c99 $(GENFLAGS)
-CXXFLAGS = -std=c++11 $(GENFLAGS)
+CXXFLAGS = -std=c++11 -fpermissive $(GENFLAGS)
 
 HEADERS=src/bpacking.h src/dict.h  src/scalar.h src/avxbpacking.h src/avxcodec.h  src/avxdict.h
 EXECUTABLES=scalartest avxtest decodebenchmark
diff --git a/benchmarks/benchmark.h b/benchmarks/benchmark.h
index eff8e91..182d985 100644
--- a/benchmarks/benchmark.h
+++ b/benchmarks/benchmark.h
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ static inline void tellmeall() {
 
 #define RDTSC_START(cycles)                                                   \
     do {                                                                      \
-        register unsigned cyc_high, cyc_low;                                  \
+        unsigned cyc_high, cyc_low;                                  \
         __asm volatile(                                                       \
             "cpuid\n\t"                                                       \
             "rdtsc\n\t"                                                       \
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ static inline void tellmeall() {
 
 #define RDTSC_FINAL(cycles)                                                   \
     do {                                                                      \
-        register unsigned cyc_high, cyc_low;                                  \
+        unsigned cyc_high, cyc_low;                                  \
         __asm volatile(                                                       \
             "rdtscp\n\t"                                                      \
             "mov %%edx, %0\n\t"                                               \