JSP.2.3.4 Empty Elements - JSP Specs ?

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

While the following are all non-empty tags:
<foo> </foo>
<foo><%= expression %></foo>
<foo><% scriptlet %></foo>
<foo><bar/></foo>
<foo><!-- a comment --></foo>

While I am (not sure but) comfortable to assume that the last line in NOT empty because it contains a HTML comment which will be transmitted to the client. However, I can't understand why the first line in non-empty?
Am I missing something in the first line?
There seems to be a space, but does that make it non-empty?
Thanks for your help.
- satya

[Ram Dhan Yadav K]

Hi Madhav,
During translation time of JSP, white space is preserved. So white space means non-empty.