HTML 5 syntax

Simon St. Laurent provided this URL:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-html5-20090423/syntax.html

It surprised me enough that I pulled it down and ran the equivalent of 
"wc" on it.  Call it around 30K words.  A novella, if it were more 
readable.

This URL:

http://www.xml.com/axml/target.html

Is the annotated XML specification.  The annotations don't add much to 
the word count, since the document is presented in frames, annotations 
separate from content.  15K words, roughly.

15K, 30K.  Of course, the XML spec doesn't support namespaces.  Uh ... 
no, never mind.  Hmmm.  There's gotta be something left out of the XML 
spec that's in the HTML 5 spec, to justify this, right?  Oh, wait ... 
this URL:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-html5-20090423/the-xhtml-syntax.html

13K words.  That gives us 27K.  Nearly there.

All right, I apologize.  The XML spec is fairly well-regarded, among 
standardistas, for its admirable terseness.  Still ... the difference 
seems rather remarkable, to me.

Amy!
-- 
Amelia A. Lewis                    amyzing {at} talsever.com
The flesh is strong.  The spirit stronger.  So shed your skin, baby.
Let it through.  Come on over.
                -- Amy Ray