[Voted into WP at October, 2009 meeting.]

Proposed resolution (September, 2009):

1. Change 9.2.2 [dcl.stc] paragraph 3 as follows:

A register specifier is a hint to the implementation that the object so declared will be heavily used. [Note: the hint can be ignored and in most implementations it will be ignored if the address of the object is taken. This use is deprecated (see [depr.register]). —end note]

2. Add a new section following _N3000_.D.4 [depr.string]:

register keyword [depr.register]

The use of the register keyword as a storage-class-specifier is deprecated (see 9.2.2 [dcl.stc]).

Notes from the March, 2009 meeting:

The consensus of the CWG was in favor of deprecating register.

The register keyword serves very little function, offering no more than a hint that a note says is typically ignored. It should be deprecated in this version of the standard, freeing the reserved name up for use in a future standard, much like auto has been re-used this time around for being similarly useless.