I'd say this one's minor. It's an irritation. I only found it when posting pieces of a query's XML plan.
Though do note that it happens in other code markups than XML, which can be a pain as I and some others use < and > to indicate a placeholder in code.
As such:
DBCC CHECKDB () WITH NO_INFOMSGS, ALL_ERRORMSGS
That should have been
DBCC CHECKDB (< Database Name > ) WITH NO_INFOMSGS, ALL_ERRORMSGS
Code blocks other than XML shouldn't be trying to close tags at all.
Hmmm, add another bug. Automatic adding of ="" on what's not intended as an xml attribute. This kind of 'validating' should only happen on code blocks with an xml-related description, not on SQL ones.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability