Yes! There are compilers that will not compile code that writes into const locations.
This is what Sun's compiler (sunpro version 4.0) has to say:
void xxx (char *foo) {
*(const char *)foo = 1;
}
cc -o foo foo.c
"foo.c", line 2: left operand must be modifiable lvalue: op "="
cc: acomp failed for foo.c
*** Error code 2
gcc 2.7 issues a warning.