References tag internal spacing [closed]

Question

In the  <references /> tag, is the space between the "s" and "/" critical? The lack of it apparently creates a error code #863 -- missing references tag.

If not, then the edit bot could be told to ignore it.

Comments

It is critical if you want to avoid creating the error code. The use of the space is correct, but I believe mark up still works in many cases without it. Newly created profiles will already have the <references /> in place, but if you are doing Data Doctoring your otherwise working on an older profile, and I mean really old, you may need to add the tag. I am curious why you wouldn't want to use the space between the s and the /?

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I agree with Walt: if <references/> works, it is pedantic and creates unnecessary labour to have a DBE suggestion to insert the space.

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One more keystroke and having to remember to put it in.

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As Lucy said in newly created profile is appears automatically. It is only missing when someone has removed it. If I am doing Data Doctor work and it is missing, I just copy and paste from under How to Add Sources on the right of the Edit page. Takes a second.

Answer 1

It works also without space, but the space should be present.

WT+ does NOT generate the suggestion for missing space, but I programed EditBOT to corect it anyway. I think also Auto Cleanup option in extension adds the space.

Comments

The space is optional in XML:

[44] EmptyElemTag ::= '<' Name (S Attribute)* S? '/>'

Is there a formal specification for the WikiTree markup language, or even for MediaWiki?

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Here's a link to the specification for the Cite extension for MediaWiki, which refers to <references /> including the space - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite. On the help page linked from that specification, there are 17 mentions of <references /> with the space and 1 mention of <references/> without the space. It would therefore seem safest to me to include the space, even if it seems to work at the moment without it.

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As one tag is html, and the other is mediawiki, we should be using the wiki markup language tag, not the html tag.  Just because it seems to work now, does not mean it always will.

Answer 2

Altho I'm not in a position to say whether it's necessary, I got used to the use of the space when learning MediaWiki markup on Wikipedia years ago.