[kfuse]

Maybe one reason is its verbosity for small everyday tasks, like config files or when representing arrays. If xml allowed empty tags there probably would be no need for json.

[forty]

Empty tag as in <tag /> ?

[amy_petrik]

That's a bit confusing to me, I don't understand. I think that type of tagging can be ambiguous. Just to suggest a better construct:

<tag type="tag" class="tag" purpose="tag" tag_subtype="empty" description="this is a emptytag, a subtype of tag" empty="true"></tag>

Now, that's not perfect, I would even describe it as minimalist, but I hope it sets you in the right direction!