Glacial Erratics

Mike asked some questions in the comments to Purple Number Identity that boil down to why put the link at the end of the paragraph:    (00011I)

There are a few different reasons why the purple number follows its graf, none of which are conclusive, but frequent use seems to like them there:    (00011K)

• I find them less visually jarring at the end of the paragraph where they don't interrupt the flow of the reading quite as much. PurpleSlurple has used links at the start of lines, so there is a good place to look for comparison.    (00011L)

• I find them more useful at the end because that is when I want them. Imagine the flow of action when reading: I'm reading along and read a paragraph to which I'd like to make a reference. I don't know this until I've read the paragraph and lo, there at the end is my tool for helping with that reference.    (00011M)

• Having the anchor at the start of the paragraph and the link at the end makes parsing for TransClusion a good deal easier than it would be otherwise.    (00011N)

Part of the reason the purple numbers are done in their tasteful lavender style is to minimize their intrusion in the content.    (00011P)

Using section or graf markers might make sense in combination with hiearchical or section IDs but not as much with NIDs.    (00011Q)

Hiearchical IDs are designed to label ordered sections of a document. The second header is always the second header because it is second. NIDs indicate the content not the order. If you change around the order of the text, the NID goes with its original text.    (00011R)

Consider a non-NID example with poetry. I've written some poetry that for reasons beyond my understanding you like so you've made a reference to it. You read the first version:    (00011S)

  Lo, I was dead, speared by truth (01)
  Spread fast among the yearning (02)    (00011T)

You wonder what that second line means so you send me some email referencing purple number 02. Later I change my mind a bit and reorder:    (00011U)

  Spread fast among the yearning (01)
  I was dead, speared by truth (02)    (00011V)

When you wrote your email your HID pointed to "Spread fast among the yearning". When I read the email it pointed to "I was dead, speared by truth".    (00011W)

Using NIDs would have the second version like this:    (00011X)

  Spread fast among the yearning (02)
  I was dead, speared by truth (01)    (00011Y)

There is discussion of implementing both HIDs and NIDs in future versions of PurpleWiki. If we do, it is possible that HIDs would go at the start of the line. HIDs are very handy for printed documents, or other sitations where a human readable and speakable identifier is valuable, even if it might change between revisions.    (00011Z)