Problem linking a 3.2 program with older (< 3.2) libs

[Matthew Camuto]

My current problem is this:

I need (99% so) to build an application using gcc(or g++...) 3.2
andit needs to link against a library that I do not have the
source code to and is supported under 2.95 (maybe even 2.96..)

I can compile my simple main using 2.96 and it is find. However..
I can build my files fine under 3.2 and then once I go to link BAM..
I get a million errors and unresolved symbols.. I am even getting errors
that simple std::cout are not defined.. I do realize that there have been
some big changes in 3.2 making it stricter but was wondering:

a) If I could use 3.2 to build and link like is was 2.95

or

b) Is there an easy way to specify that these older libraries are
compatible only up to 2.95.

Unfortunatly the vendor orginally said they would support only gcc 2.95 on
RH 6.2 but now they said have upped it to RH 7.3 but said they would not
support 3.2 at this time. We have no source and I would prefer not to
have two compilers in my system if need be (everything else we do is with
3.2). I do have both .a and .so files for debug and release so options
are possible.

Any help with these problems (I have read a bunch or similiar cases) would
be greatly appreciated.

thanks

mc