Subject: Re: The Next Generation of Lisp Programmers From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 27 Aug 2002 07:58:39 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3239423919385905@naggum.no> * Johan Kullstam | Yes, but this what is stupid. The rules of the language says you | *must* properly nest the tags. However, the syntax suggests that not | nesting is possible. Why else introduce the verbose closing tag | unless you could close something else than the last opened tag? Historically, the idea was that omitted start- and end-tags should be inferrable. This is a bad idea for a large number of very good reasons, and XML did away with them, which is the same kind of improvement that drowning at a depth of 10 feet is an improvement over drowning at a depth of 100 feet, but in a Stroustrupesque move, XML decided to keep the antiquated end-tags which had now survived their usefulness. The whole syntax was an improvement over its predecessors in 1970, but after it had been adopted, it should have been further improved. As it transpired, that never happened and central figures in the SGML community resisted all changes that would make SGML obsolete. Ironically, this is precisely what happened with XML. -- Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.