off-topic request for suggestions

[Rasmus Lerdorf <ra...@lerdorf.on.ca>]

The new XML standard uses <? ... ?> tags.  This conflicts with the
tag-style I was going to use in the new version of mod_php.  I am trying
to muddle through the various standards along with various HTML publishing
systems in order to come up with a tag that is not likely to get clobbered
in the future and will at least make some sort of sense to existing HTML
publishing systems.

Some suggestions so far have been:

1) <?php ... ?>
2) <% ... %>
3) << ... >> , <: ... :> , <@ ... @> , <- ... -> , <_ ... _> , <> ... <>

Option 1 is a bit cumbersome because of its length.  The way PHP is used,
you frequently pop in and out of PHP mode and needing a 5 character start
tag could get tedious.  It is however semi-SGML compliant as it looks like
an SGML PI (process instruction) tag.

Option 2 is what Microsoft uses for ASP.  The logic for using this tag
would be that nobody is likely to use it for anything else, and existing
HTML editors probably understand that a block of code is supposed to go
between the tags and will therefore do something intelligent.  The problem
with this is that Microsoft uses it for ASP.  Could get very confusing and
it might even conflict one day when someone tries to use both ASP and PHP
on the same file.

Option 3 is to go for a completely weird tag.  Looks cool, is nice and
short, easy to type and isn't likely to conflict with anybody.
Disadvantages would be that we are completely ignoring any and all
standard ever written and HTML editing systems are not going to be very
happy with them.

My problem is that I can make a pretty strong case both for and against
all three options.  

-Rasmus