change compiler check and string indices for gcc

[rem1776]

Description
some small changes for the newest gcc

this gets the code passing the configure check and compiling successfully.

We may just want to get rid of the m4 i modified, so making this a draft for now.

Fixes #1527

How Has This Been Tested?
draft

Checklist:

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
• My changes generate no new warnings
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules
• New check tests, if applicable, are included
• make distcheck passes

[marshallward]

I am testing this in our regression suite. I will update soon to let you know if it works.

[marshallward]

I had not realized how much had been dropped from 2024.01. Unfortunately this will take longer than I had hoped to verify that things are working with main.

I will update when I can, but it will take a while...

[rem1776]

closing since this breaks calls with the nvidia compiler and is a regression from past gcc versions, more details are in the linked issue.