`<br />` was the correct way in XHTML to do HTML5's `<br>`
(I think `<br />` still works in HTML5 or maybe browsers just don't mind it, but it's not the recommended way.)
(I think `<br />` still works in HTML5 or maybe browsers just don't mind it, but it's not the recommended way.)
Arguably, it's bad style to use the same syntax for opening a tag as for a void tag, because it forces semantics into the syntax for trivial benefit. With out the "/", your HTML syntax parser now has to include a lexicon of all the void tags, and be updated with spec revisions.