diff --git a/SWIG/Lib/swig.swg b/SWIG/Lib/swig.swg
index fa69da10f..e376cbf07 100644
--- a/SWIG/Lib/swig.swg
+++ b/SWIG/Lib/swig.swg
@@ -403,19 +403,35 @@ static int NAME(TYPE x) {
 %enddef
 
 
-/* Auxiliary methods for assigning unnamed type C++ variables, where
+/* 
+   Auxiliary methods for assigning unnamed type C++ variables, where
    swig doesn't know the casting type, but C++ can derived it:
 
      struct Foo { enum {Hi, Hello } hola; };
+
+   Activate the following for compilers that do not support unnamed
+   template parameters (under your own risk).
+
+   #define SWIG_UNNAMED_USE_MEMCPY
 */
 %insert("runtime") %{
 #ifdef __cplusplus
+/* here, the C++ compilers that do not accept unnamed template parameters */
+#if defined(_SGI_COMPILER_VERSION)
+#ifdef SWIG_UNNAMED_USE_MEMCPY
+/* dangerous assigment, but for enums could work */
+#define swig_assign_unnamed(eval, val) memcpy(&(eval),&(val), sizeof(eval))
+#else
+#define swig_assign_unnamed(eval, val) printf("unnamed member assigment not sopperted")
+#endif
+#else
 template <class T, class V>
 inline
 void swig_assign_unnamed(T& eval, const V& val)
 {
   eval = static_cast<T>(val);
 }
+#endif
 #else
 #define swig_assign_unnamed(eval, val) eval = val
 #endif