validation error with script element?

i had some xhtml pages with the following line in them:

<script src="default.js" type="text/javascript" defer="defer" />

they validated just fine, but refused to render properly on older 
browsers.  xhtml browsers (mozilla and amaya) worked just fine.  i realised 
afterwards that script is not an empty element, so i had to change it to:

<script src="default.js" type="text/javascript" defer="defer"></script>

and everything worked fine.  shouldn't the validator have told me that the 
minimized format wasn't applicable to this tag?

mike.
----
"This life has been a test.  If it had been a real life, you would have
  been given instructions on where to go and what to do."  -Angela Chase

michael.newton@telus.net                           +1.604.202.5717

PO Box 29023 RPO Haney                                 PO Box 2118
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