How is whitespace treated in CML?
Whitespace is very complex in SGML and can be a very common source of errors. It is a particular problem before and after tags and you have to know the precise rules. The good news is that XML has recognised this problem and it is now much easier. XML (and therefore CML) allows non-significant whitespace (such as between tags) to be discarded and for the rest to be folded into a single space character. Since whitespace is a very poor markup tool (e.g. tabbing) CML does not use it at all, and requires the use of tagged delimiters. HTML has also led many people to ignore whitespace as precise and CML also follows this approach. Specifically, therefore, CML regards any contiguous whitespace as a single separating character.
