HTML script tags can not be atomic/self-closing

Recently I completed a project where I converted an Actionscript form generation system I wrote for my wife's business into Javascript.

I've been writing Javascript on and off for the last, almost, 20 years. For easy coding, I started with all my code and css styles in the same html file, but eventually broke up everything into individual files.

I placed the stylesheet in its own file and loaded it using a standard <link> tag:

<link id="primaryStylesheet" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="path/to/my/fancy/stylesheet.css" />

Notice how the I used the self-closing (atomic) version of the <link> tag (ends with "/>" rather than with a closing "</link>").

Then it was time to load in all the Javascript which was now in its own set of external files. I used a standard <script> tag for that:

<!-- DOESN'T WORK -->
<script type="text/JavaScript" src="/awesome/library.js" />

However, I was surprised to find that while my stylesheet loaded without a problem, my Javascript files did not. I knew this not because I got an error like "Javascript files did not load", but because the scripts that I knew to work and do something on screen no longer did anything. After a little investigation, I discovered they weren't in memory at all.

A little googling brought me to an entry on Siderite's Blog that explains he had the same problem and discovered that the W3C DOM recommendation states the following about the script tag:

Start tag: required, End tag: required

Thus, it can't be an atomic/self-closing tag. Browsers respect that, though they don't provide any error feedback, instead failing silently.

<!-- Works! -->
<script type="text/JavaScript" src="/awesome/library.js"></script>

So, thanks Siderite for reminding me that it pays to read specs. :-)