Can updates of online C++ Standard Draft invalidate links to it?

Question

Links to the online C++ Stadnard Draft at http://eel.is/c++draft/ may contain paragraph and sentence numbers , such as: http://eel.is/c++draft/description#structure.summary-1.sentence-2 . I wonder what happens when the Draft is updated, eg, when some paragraphs/sentences are added in front of existing paragraph/sentences. This would shift their numbers and possibly invalidate links, wouldn't it?. However, there are many such links on SO but I haven't seen a single invalid one.

Answer 1

Links to sections are generally fine. The C++ standard uses named sections that are fairly stable between standard revisions. Subsections may be moved around between parent sections (that's why you have things like [intro.object] being a subsection of [basic] rather than [intro]), but, while I'm not sure if it's a hard rule, they don't generally get renamed or removed.

Links to paragraphs within a section aren't as stable. They will continue to work , but they may not point to the paragraph you intended after a later standard revision. AFAIK there is no effort made to keep paragraph numbering consistent between standard revisions.