The third comment on the article is a great example of how this is widely misunderstood today: >>> Only dumb people would write <div/> and expect it to be open

The third comment on the article is a great example of how this is widely misunderstood today: >>> Only dumb people would write <div/> and expect it to be open. Don't change the language to accomodate people who can't understand basic syntax. >> But it would be open. Is it a good language design if "only dumb people" get it right? > I actually didn't know that <div/> is open, and can't believe this is so. So no, HTML is not a good language if this is possible. This makes the definition of open and closed tags meaningless.