[thelist] XML parsing

[PeterV]

Here is a question: what is easier for developers (using a wide variety
of languages) to support:
<topic id="1" name="joe">
</topic>
<topic id="2" name="joe's kid" parent="1">
</topic>

Or

<topic id="1" name="joe">
<topic id="2" name="joe's kid">
</topic>
</topic>

(And you can have long trees (multiple nesting)). I need to know how
hard one is support compared to the other, not just in programming
languages, but even in things like Moveabletype tags, or other
environments.
Peter