End tags for P and the various "list element" tags are only required in XHTML. They're optional in HTML.

See the specs for <p> in HTML 4.01: 

9.3.1 Paragraphs: the P element

<!ELEMENT P - O (%inline;)*            -- paragraph -->
<!ATTLIST P
  %attrs;                              -- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events --
  >

Start tag: required, End tag: optional

update: see http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html for the index of all HTML tags.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re^2: HTML::TreeBuilder dropping end tags by Joost
in thread HTML::TreeBuilder dropping end tags by admiral_grinder

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
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