Which copies attest each side of a version's derivation, read off the
edits themselves: the copies bearing what it inserts stand for the
reading it moves to, and those bearing what it strikes for the
reading it moves from.
This is the way to name a side. Counting only the copies that bear a
version's own text will not do it, because a collation hands a
child's carriers up to the parent's symbols, so a descendant's copies
come to bear an ancestor's readings and look like its own. The
deletions are not exposed to that: what a version strikes is attested
by the copies that read it before the version departed from it.
A fully collated edge inserts and deletes nothing and so attests
neither side, which is the case where the edition has genuinely
stopped saying and an editor has to.
Which copies attest each side of a version's derivation, read off the edits themselves: the copies bearing what it inserts stand for the reading it moves to, and those bearing what it strikes for the reading it moves from.
This is the way to name a side. Counting only the copies that bear a version's own text will not do it, because a collation hands a child's carriers up to the parent's symbols, so a descendant's copies come to bear an ancestor's readings and look like its own. The deletions are not exposed to that: what a version strikes is attested by the copies that read it before the version departed from it.
A fully collated edge inserts and deletes nothing and so attests neither side, which is the case where the edition has genuinely stopped saying and an editor has to.