empty tags and the XMl 1.0 spec

[Kay Michael]

> From: Elliotte Rusty Harold
> "Empty-element tags may be used for any element which has no content,
> whether or not it is declared using the keyword EMPTY. For
> interoperability, the empty-element tag must be used, and can only be
> used, for elements which are declared EMPTY."
> 
> 1. The "can only be used" part of the second sentence seems to
> contradict the the first sentence.
> 
> 2. "the empty-element tag must be used...for elements which 
> are declared EMPTY" seems to contradict the assertiona that <NAME></NAME> 
> and <NAME/> are the same thing.
> 
> Is there any way out of this conundrum?
> 
Yes. Section 1.2, terminology, says that all sentences beginning with "For
interoperability" can be safely ignored unless you are interested in getting
your document through a piece of software that wasn't written to process
XML.

Mike Kay

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