HTML 5: Is it , , or ?

Question

I\'ve tried checking other answers, but I\'m still confused — especially after seeing W3schools HTML 5 reference.

I thought HTML 4.01 was supposed to \"allow\" singl

Answer 1

XML requires all tags to have a corresponding closing tag. So there is a special short-hand syntax for tags without inner contents.

HTML5 is not XML, so it should not pose such a requirement. Neither is HTML 4.01.

For instance, in HTML5 specs, all examples with br tag use
syntax, not
.

UPD Actually,
is permitted in HTML5. 9.1.2.1, 7.