What practical purpose for your everyday web developer does enforcing XML have?

I used to demand that every single thing I wrote be proper XML, then I realized I was wasting my time. A br or hr doesn't need to be closed. Closing an input tag is just plain silly, or a link to a stylesheet? Why should that need to be closed?

What makes the web great is that so many people are making content for it, and there's no reason to bother most of those people with XML's unnecessary demands.

Now teach grandma how to use it.

Someone running SPARC and Itanium can probably cope without FatELF, however, people running Ubuntu, that don't even know their computer has an architecture could be helped when they, unbeknownst to them, upgrade from 32 to 64 bit, or from one architecture to another.

Thanks, now I understand. Not what you're explaining, I understand why everyone's confused by X.

The question is how to use a barometer to measure the height of the building, not a barometer and a rope, not a barometer and a ruler, and not a barometer and a stopwatch. The superintendent one is the only successful answer.