xml-dev - Re: Can an element be sometimes empty?

[Gilles Marichal <gmaricha@Adobe.COM>]

Michel Rodriguez <mrodrigu@ieee.org> writes:

 > Expat does not seem to have a problem with it though.

I suppose that
<doc>
   <weird_element/>
   <weird_element>with a content </weird_element>
</doc>
is considered equivalent to
<doc>
   <weird_element></weird_element>
   <weird_element>with a content </weird_element>
</doc>
which is valid well-formed XML.

Note the comment on rule 44:
For interoperability, the empty-element tag must be used, and can only be 
used, for elements which are declared EMPTY.

I assume that a XML processor that enforce the interoperability 
recommendations would flag an error for your example.

-- Gilles