Question

I understand the differences between XML and HTML, but one particular aspect is not clear to me. XML is usually described as both a language that describes data, as well as a document markup language. Because of the former definition, XML is often compared to other data-describing formats such as JSON. Because of the latter definition, XML is also often compared to other document-markup languages, such as HTML.

I realize XML can function as both, but if XML is to serve as a document markup language, can document text appear between closing tags, in the same way it can with HTML?

Take the following HTML:

<div>
   Some text, and some <b>more</b> text.
</div>

Ignoring the initial XML Declaration, is the above also valid XML? Note that the fragment text. is not enclosed in any tags: it appears between two closing tags. This is, of course, necessary in a markup language like HTML, where the goal is to format text. But most examples of XML I see use it to describe data, like:

<book>
  <title>Blah blah</title>
  <author>Blah blah</author>
</book>

In the above example, text never appears between closing tags.

So, is text (content) allowed to appear between closing tags in XML?

Answer 1

Yes. That is referred to as “mixed content”

You are correct in noting it as one of the requirements for a document
format as opposed to a data format. JSON is probably better as a data
format than XML, but because it does not allow mixed content, it cannot
replace XML as a document format.