1. A method comprising: identifying a plurality of markings, each of the plurality of markings corresponding to one of a sequence of positions, the sequence of positions comprising a current position and one or more previous positions that occur before the current position in the sequence; and encoding the plurality of markings, via a processor, using: a first identifier representing the current position of the sequence of positions; and a plurality of additional identifiers, each of the plurality of additional identifiers representing one of the previous positions of the sequence, such that the current position can be determined based on the first identifier in combination with the additional identifiers; wherein: the first identifier comprises a first numeric digit; each of the additional identifiers comprises additional numeric digits; the sequence of positions comprises a sequence of “X” positions; a number of digits comprised in the first identifier and the additional identifiers, together (“Y”) is less than the number of positions (“X”); and the additional numeric digits are sequenced in order, in a first ordered sequence, based on an order of the corresponding previous positions with respect to the current position, such that the current position can be determined based on the first digit in combination with the additional digits, including the sequence of the additional digits.