html script tag

Question

Why doesn't this work

<script src="jquery.js"/>

But this works

<script src="jquery.js"></script>

?

Firefox 3.5.8

• Brock Batsell: Dupe of stackoverflow.com/questions/69913/…
• dumbass: This question is similar to: Why don't self-closing script elements work?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.

Answer 1

Because:

<script src="jquery.js"/>

is valid XML (including XHTML) but is not valid HTML.

See 18.2.1 The SCRIPT element:

18.2.1 The SCRIPT element

<!ELEMENT SCRIPT - - %Script; -- script statements -->
<!ATTLIST SCRIPT
 charset %Charset; #IMPLIED -- char encoding of linked resource --
 type %ContentType; #REQUIRED -- content type of script language --
 src %URI; #IMPLIED -- URI for an external script --
 defer (defer) #IMPLIED -- UA may defer execution of script --
 >

Start tag: required, End tag: required

• jdizzle: will the /> trick work (in modern browsers) if the pages Content-Type header is application/xml? I've heard of such black magic before.
• cletus: @jdizzle /> will work if its an XHTML document, which has several ramifications. It has problems with older browsers and (imho) there's no compelling reason to use XHTML so just don't do it would be my advice.

Answer 2

The script element is not defined as EMPTY (since you can embed the script directly inside it), therefore in HTML the end tag is required, therefore you cannot have something that is (in tag soup terms) a start tag with a random / character in it representing the entire element.

Hence we have: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-media-types/#C_2