Compiling nasm itself, version 0.98.39, on linux Debian 2.4 kernel, gcc version 2.95.4 required me to remove from the configure generated Makefile the cflag -std=c99. Then it compiled OK. With that flag, it would not. I also had to remove that flag from the rdoff/Makefile.
oughtta be automatic, right. Hopefully I didn't break anything!