You didn't answer my questions.

Are you now saying that &lab; is standard and will always work out of the box?

Are you now saying that <post_include>common/lab</post_include> is standard and will always work out of the box?

Where can I find aXML to test this?

I find it rather bizarre your so fixated with them, since they are such a rarely needed thing in real world applications.

We know you're a bad coder, but you don't have to brag about it. Finding out how to escape is the first one needs to figure out how to do when writing a plugin. That is in no way rare!

Note; the problem and solution exist at the level of the perl and the plugins,

It doesn't matter how many times you say it, it's not going to be true until the answer to my first two questions becomes "yes".

The version I have at the moment is capable of outputting long and complex aXML strings correctly

No, a plugin can't do that until the answer to my first two questions becomes "yes".

(You keep countering claims about what a plugin can do to claims about what aXML can do. I'm going to assume it's just a mistake on your part rather than a lie by misdirection.)