[rfc-i] 'gaps' in the RFC index

[Alfred =?hp-roman8?B?SM5uZXM=?=]

>> The RFC index used to document which RFC numbers have never been
>> issued (and will not be issued any more).  To this end, the
>> "rfc-index.txt" file, as indicated in its preface, contains
>> entries of the form:
>>
>>   #### Not Issued.
>
> Yes, these are useful; I recently needed RFC numbers in certain number
> ranges for test cases (for xml2rfc), and it was a nice way to find
> numbers that could be used for testing with no risk of the test case
> ending up in Google, confusing them with a "real" RFC.
>
>> and these entries appear in the XML version of the RFC index as:
>>
>>   <rfc-not-issued-entry>
>>       <doc-id>RFC####</doc-id>
>>   </rfc-not-issued-entry>
>> ...
>
> Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the pointer.
>
> BR, Julian

Julian,
yet another idea, based on long-standing private experience:

In my private RFC database, I maintain provisional
"Not Yet Published" entries for all RFC number gaps
up to the highest RFC number published so far.
That provides for a contiguous index space and allows
several shortcuts on storage and information extraction.

MfG / Kind regards.
  Alfred.