• Great article. We'll done sir!

    I do, however, disagree a little with this line (emph. mine)...

    But HTML is often not well-formed XML. Some tags are "singleton" tags--that do not require end tags...

    Html 4.01+ (May 2000) is in fact well-formed XML. In other words, if it was developed or generated this century it is almost certainly well-formed. I don't know how much html 4.0 and ealier is still out there but it's certainly the exception and not the rule.

    HTML 4.01 DOES require end tags or it can be empty. E.g. this is well formed: and so is this <p/>. This: <p> is neither legit html if its 4.01 or later, nor is it well-formed xml.

    I am not trying to take anything away from your excellent article but felt that is worth calling out.

    "I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

    -- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001