xml-dev - </> as end tag

["Simon St.Laurent" <SimonStL@classic.msn.com>]

While looking over the release notes for the 31 October 97 version of the Java 
MSXML parser, I noticed that they've added a 'feature' that allows for 'Short 
end tags,' using </>.  This won't be too difficult to implement, perhaps, but 
it seems like an odd break with XML's (so far) rather strict rules for start 
and end tags, particularly 3.1 of the 7 August 97 Working Draft:

>The end of every element may (for elements which are not empty, must) be 
marked by an end-tag containing >a name that echoes the element's type as 
given in the start-tag...
>Well-Formedness Constraint - GI Match:
>The Name in an element's end-tag must match that in the start-tag.

Is this something new going on with the spec, or is it just Microsoft?  It 
looks like they fixed a lot of the bugs, but this may introduce some new 
problems.  (They also allow ampersands in PCDATA, as long as they're 'not 
followed by a valid name character.)  It seems a little early for XML to begin 
fragmenting.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/standards/xml/xmlchgs.htm.

Simon St.Laurent



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