Hi Ron, Thanks for the detailed bug report. I am glad to report back that it has already been fixed in our latest 12.2 release [1,2]. Cheers, Christian [1] https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/2575 [2] https://basex.org/download/ ________________________________ Von: ron.vdbranden--- via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 4. Februar 2026 18:05 An: BaseX <basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Betreff: [basex-talk] BaseX-12.1: HTML 5.0 serialization difference Hi, I've noticed a serialization difference since updating to BaseX-12.1, and am wondering if this is intentional or not. When serializing as HTML 5.0, the character escaping in <script> tags seems to be influenced by the presence of preceding <script> tags that are either empty or only contain collapsible whitespace: * when a <script> element follows a non-empty (or non-collapsible) <script> element, special characters like &, <, and > are unescaped in the output * input: <head> <script><![CDATA[& < > ]]></script> <script src="test">//</script> <script>& < ></script> </head> ! serialize(., map {"method":"html", "version":"5.0"}) * output: <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <script>& < > </script> <script src="test">//</script> <script>& < ></script> </head> * when, however, a <script> element follows an empty (or collapsible) <script> element, special characters like &, <, and > are escaped in the output * input: <head> <script><![CDATA[& < > ]]></script> <script src="test"></script> <script>& < ></script> </head> ! serialize(., map {"method":"html", "version":"5.0"}) * output: <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <script>& < > </script> <script src="test">//</script> <script>& < ></script> </head> I'm wondering if this is intentional or a bug? Best, Ron