Deprecating C++ classes with static member functions

[John W. Eaton]

Suppose I have a class like this:

  class octave_foo
  {
  public:
    static void bar () { }
  };

and I want to put it in a proper C++ namespace, like this:

  namespace octave
  {
    class foo
    {
    public:
      static void bar () { }
    };
  }

Is there a convenient way to make the old name 'octave_foo::bar' an 
alias for octave::foo::bar so that it can be tagged with a deprecated 
attribute and the compiler will warn about using the old name?

With GCC, using

  __attribute__ ((deprecated ("msg")))
  typedef octave::foo octave_foo;

will warn for creating objects using the name octave_foo, but won't warn 
for calling the static function using the name octave_foo::bar.

If it's not possible to create instances of the class, then

  namespace octave_foo
  {
    __attribute__ ((deprecated ("msg")))
    auto bar = &octave::foo::bar;
  }

will work, though this requires a definition for each static function in 
the class, and it's a little weird because octave_foo was originally a 
class, not a namespace.

I don't see how to get warnings for class objects and static functions 
other than to write

  class
  __attribute__ ((deprecated ("msg")))
  octave_foo
  {
  public:
    __attribute__ ((deprecated ("msg")))
    static void bar () { octave::foo::bar (); }
  };

but that requires duplicating most (or all) of the class definition.

Am I missing something that would make this easier to do?

jwe