Re: [xml-dev] Wikipedia on XML

[Robert Koberg <rob@koberg.com>]

>
> "Tag
> A markup construct that begins with < and ends with >. Tags come in  
> three flavors: start tags, for example <section>, end tags, for  
> example </section>, and empty-element tags, for example <line-break/>.
>
> Element
> A logical component of a document which either begins with a start  
> tag and ends with an end tag, or consists only of an empty-element  
> tag. The characters between the start and end tags, if any, are the  
> element's content, and may contain markup, including other elements,  
> which are called child elements. An example of an element is  
> <Greeting>Hello, world.</Greeting>. Another is <line-break/>."
>
> Maybe a Tag should be considered more like an event, with the '/>'  
> being an end event for for an empty element.
>
> In the above excerpt from the WikiPedia entry, what is the  
> difference between an empty element *tag* and an empty *element*?


Further on this:

How do you get/set a start or end tag in an XML context? Do you?

In a DOM (W3, XOM, dom4j, etc) or transformation language (like XSL or  
Xquery), there is no concept of a start or end tag. The only place a  
start or end tag comes into play is in a SAX style. There they are  
events that can be consumed or emitted. What benefit does defining  
start and end tags provide? I would say it confuses most people,  
because most people come from the perspective of working from a DOM or  
a transformation language when dealing with XML.

best,
-Rob