Optional Closing Tags in HTML

[Nikolas741]

For as long as I've been validating web pages, I never realized that the closing </head> tag was optional in HTML. I feel as if I've missed the boat at times.

While I'm all for trimming excess code, I just cannot for the life of me strip out closing tags because they are optional in HTML. I'd be concerned that something, somewhere would not parse the document correctly if I removed the closing </head> element.

Are my concerns unfounded?

[SensoVision]

hi Nikolas, which schema have you used to validate your documents as if you validate with XHTML you'll either need to comment out tags in usual way or use close tags like this <br /> and it's required for any tag in the documents even those which previously could be left unclosed like <br>, <hr> or <img>.

[Andy]

Are my concerns unfounded?

I think so.

A while back I produced what I claimed was The world's least standards-compliant web page. Viewing the source of this page shows how ridiculous your HTML code can look whilst still rendering well in modern browsers.

[johnhask]

I think validation is more important than trimming. I also find it easier to fix errors when they occur.

[donecweb]

I think validation is more important than trimming. I also find it easier to fix errors when they occur.

Johnhask what do you mean by trimming?

[johnhask]

'Trimming' as in trimming the code. At this point in time, page weight is far less an issue for me than it used to be.