Re: [xml-dev] Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easierto author) XML

Tim Bray wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> Well, I routinely use perl regexps to process great big XML instances,
> when those instances have been generated by machine.  There is no good
> reason at this point to introduce more complexity to XML parsing. -Tim

If the instances are generated under your control by a machine, then by
definition they won't use the short-tag feature if your regexps don't
support it. The complexity argument also does not wash: entities and
CDATA sections easily add the most complexity to XML of any feature. If
you are going to use regexps on arbitrary XML that you do not control
then you need to normalize away entities, CDATA sections and probably
newlines in tags. Adding short-tags to that list of things is not going
to change the complexity of your system one whit. The additional
complexity in parsing boils down to an extra question-mark in the
grammar.

The one thing that strikes a cord with me is the phrase "at this point".
It's too late to make changes to XML.

 Paul Prescod