Fixed error in io.ascii on Mac
Modified empty field check at the beginning of columns
Merge pull request #2964 from mdmueller/fix-mac-issue

Sporadic test failure with fast io.ascii reader
Merge pull request #3068 from eteq/add-dashboard

update README to mention dashboard
moved badges for build/coverage to top of readme

[ci skip]
Move build/test badges to status section

[ci skip]