Intel C++ compiler as an alternative to Microsoft's?

Question

Is anyone here using the Intel C++ compiler instead of Microsoft\'s Visual c++ compiler?

I would be very interested to hear your experience about integration, performan

Answer 1

The last time the company I work for compared the two was about a year ago, (maybe 2). The Intel compiler generated faster code, usually only a bit faster, but in some cases quite a bit.

But it couldn't handle some of the MS language extensions that we depended on, so we ended up sticking with MS. It was VS 2005 that we were comparing it to. And I'm wracking my brain to remember exactly what MS extension the Intel compiler couldn't handle. I'll come back and edit this post if I can remember.

Answer 2

Intel C++ Compiler has AMAZING (human) support. Talking to Microsoft can literally take days. My non-trivial issue was solved through chat in under 10 minutes (including membership verification time).

EDIT: I have talked to Microsoft about problems in their products such as Office 2007, even got a bug reported. While I eventually succeeded, the overall size and complexity of their products and organization hierarchy is daunting.