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Re: Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easier to aut

• To: Rob Lugt <roblugt@e...>
• Subject: Re: Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easier to author) XML
• From: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>
• Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 14:20:53 -0700
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• References: <016901c21af5$f5275320$0200a8c0@e...>

Rob Lugt wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> 1)  Allow </> as an abbreviation for any closing tag.  After all
> <xsl:template>...</xsl:template> is rather long-winded and the element name
> in the closing tag is completely redundant.  I believe the closing tag
> syntax is probably a throw-back to SGML compatibility, but if XML 1.x
> discards that baggage then I think this would be a good thing to do. 

Funny how SGML gets the blame for whatever people dislike about XML.
Actually SGML worked exactly as you propose. </> was a legal SGML
end-tag. It had other short-forms too. Here is a document that used (and
described) just about all of them:

http://www.nyct.net/~aray/sgml/short/shorttag.txt

Actually, it was the creators of XML who decided not to keep any of
them. 

You can get the full story from one of the "fathers of XML":

http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/xml-dev-May-1998/0311.html

As you know, your second complaint is also something that XML removed
from SGML. Your final complaint is the only one inherited from SGML.

 Paul Prescod

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easier to author) XML
    • From: "Rick Jelliffe" <ricko@a...>
  • Re: Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easier to author) XML
    • From: "Rob Lugt" <roblugt@e...>

• References:
  • Suggestions for a slightly less verbose (and easier to author) XML
    • From: "Rob Lugt" <roblugt@e...>

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