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That's what I thought too, until I found that there exists C++ ABI on linux. I tried to link together two small files, both using iostreams, one compiled with Intel C++, the other with g++, and it worked.

Though I'm in doubt [haven't tested it yet] whether it would have worked had I tried to use something std::vector across functions compiled with different compilers.

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It is less of an issue in linux where there is a healthy ecosystem of libraries where you have access to source code and can reasonably expect to be able to compile everything with the same compiler. (Obviously there are times when this is not practical, but for most cases, it is ok).

Under Windows, the whole situation is a mess.

For current interesting platforms, the problem is often solved by either having no C++ compiler, or just one (e.g. the Qualcomm QDSP, which I think only recently gained a C compiler lacks a C++ compiler, and I don't imagine this changing soon).

clang uses the same ABI as gcc and if you find that something is binary incompatible then it is a bug.

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