[el_presidente]

On Linux you can mix compilers as long as they implement the Itanium ABI. At least I haven't had to recompile anything after upgrading GCC.

[gaius]

Not C++ compilers tho' - the issue is not the ABI, it's the name mangling. Tho' I believe Clang and GCC have decided to use the same convention, ICC might not have (and that by all accounts is a great compiler).

[el_presidente]

http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/cxx-abi/abi.html#mangling

I'm 99% sure that ICC is compatible with GCC.

[vetinari]

When the switch between GCC 2.x and 3.0 happened, the big new thing was 'industry standard' C++ ABI (called Itanium ABI, as el_presidente mentioned).