5.5.2.1. Example and Listing: XMP, LISTING

The <XMP> and <LISTING> elements are similar to the <PRE> element, but they have a different syntax. Their content is declared as CDATA, which means that no markup except the end-tag open delimiter-in- context is recognized (see 9.6 "Delimiter Recognition" of [SGML]).

NOTE - In a previous draft of the HTML specification, the syntax of <XMP> and <LISTING> elements allowed closing tags to be treated as data characters, as long as the tag name was not <XMP> or <LISTING>, respectively.

Since CDATA declared content has a number of unfortunate interactions with processing techniques and tends to be used and implemented inconsistently, HTML documents should not contain <XMP> nor <LISTING> elements -- the <PRE> tag is more expressive and more consistently supported.

The <LISTING> element should be rendered so that at least 132 characters fit on a line. The <XMP> element should be rendered so that at least 80 characters fit on a line but is otherwise identical to the <LISTING> element.

NOTE - In a previous draft, HTML included a <PLAINTEXT> element that is similar to the <LISTING> element, except that there is no closing tag: all characters after the <PLAINTEXT> start-tag are data.