> I can imagine some recommending it for XML compatibility (which is related to the original purpose of the ignore-the-trailing-slash behaviour, though slightly

> I can imagine some recommending it for XML compatibility (which is related to the original purpose of the ignore-the-trailing-slash behaviour, though slightly inverted in direction), but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone saying so. Well, pleased to meet you! I do use it for XML compatibility: it allows me to use XML editor modes (usually nxml in Emacs) which, being simpler to implement as they don’t have to encode the rules of which tags close where, are more likely to be available and to work well. I’ve also done little customizations to nxml over the years, and this way I have them always there no matter whether I’m working with XML or HTML. And then occasionally I use other XML tools on it, such as xsltproc. You can still pipe the HTML through tidy to translate it (although xsltproc has --html, tidy has been more reliable), but having it compatible with XML does spare me small chores again and again.