diff --git a/core/util/ProtoStream.cc b/core/util/ProtoStream.cc
index 6d1daa24..54fb19aa 100644
--- a/core/util/ProtoStream.cc
+++ b/core/util/ProtoStream.cc
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ ProtoIStream::ProtoIStream(std::istream *infile) : m_infile(infile)
 	m_log.showTime(false);
 }
 
-void ProtoIStream:: reset()
+void ProtoIStream::reset()
 {
 	m_infile->clear();
 	m_infile->seekg(0,ios::beg);
@@ -45,11 +45,12 @@ bool ProtoIStream::getNext(google::protobuf::Message* m)
 		return false;
 	m_size = ntohl(m_size);
 	
-	//FIXME: This could be inefficient because for each data buf is 
-	//allocated each time new
+	// FIXME reuse buffer (efficiency)
+	// FIXME new[] may fail (i.e., return 0)
 	char *buf = new char[m_size];
 	m_infile->read(buf, m_size);
 	if (!m_infile->good())
+		// FIXME we're leaking buf[]
 		return false;	
 	std::string st(buf, m_size);
 	m->ParseFromString(st);
diff --git a/core/util/ProtoStream.hpp b/core/util/ProtoStream.hpp
index 077dea01..040f7f8e 100644
--- a/core/util/ProtoStream.hpp
+++ b/core/util/ProtoStream.hpp
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@
 /**
  * \class ProtoOStream
  * 
- * This class can be used to write messages in a file.
- *
+ * This class can be used to sequentially write a large number of protocol
+ * buffer messages to a std::ostream.
  */
 class ProtoOStream
 {
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class ProtoOStream
 		/**
 		 *	Writes a message to a file. 
 		 *  @param m The protobuf-message to be written.
-		 *  @return Returns true if data was written.
+		 *  @return Returns true on success.
 		 */
 		bool writeMessage(google::protobuf::Message* m);
 };
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@ class ProtoOStream
 /**
  * \class ProtoIStream
  * 
- * This class can be used to read messages sequentially from a file.
- *
+ * This class can be used to read protocol buffer messages sequentially from a
+ * std::istream.
  */
 class ProtoIStream
 {
@@ -69,14 +69,13 @@ class ProtoIStream
 		virtual ~ProtoIStream() {};
 		/**
 		 *	Resets the position of the get pointer. After that getNext 
-		 *  delivers the first message again.
+		 *  reads the first message again.
 		 */
 		void reset();
 		/**
-		 *	Delivers the protobuf-messages sequentially from file.
-		 *  @param m The protobuf-message in which, the data should be 
-		 * 	written.
-		 *  @return Returns true if data was written to protobuf-message.
+		 *	Reads the next protobuf message from the input stream.
+		 *  @param m The output protobuf message.
+		 *  @return Returns true on success.
 		 */
 		bool getNext(google::protobuf::Message* m);
 };