diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ea5c5602..4fcaff7b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -127,8 +127,9 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL(DBUS_CYGWIN, test "$dbus_cygwin" = yes)
 # this must come first: other options use this to set their defaults
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([developer],
   [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-developer],
-    [set defaults to be appropriate for a D-Bus developer instead of a distribution/end-user]),
-    [], enable_developer=no])
+    [set defaults to be appropriate for a D-Bus developer instead of a distribution/end-user])],
+  [],
+  [enable_developer=no])
 
 DBUS_STATIC_BUILD_CPPFLAGS=
 if test "x$enable_shared" = xno; then
diff --git a/dbus/dbus-transport.c b/dbus/dbus-transport.c
index ba720f25..6b58fda2 100644
--- a/dbus/dbus-transport.c
+++ b/dbus/dbus-transport.c
@@ -253,7 +253,6 @@ check_address (const char *address, DBusError *error)
   int len, i;
 
   _dbus_assert (address != NULL);
-  _dbus_assert (*address != '\0');
 
   if (!dbus_parse_address (address, &entries, &len, error))
     return NULL;              /* not a valid address */