On Thu, Sep 07, 2006 at 12:39:21PM -0400, anton@kava.org wrote:
> I suspect it was done on the basis that it seemed non-sensical at the time.

Yes, I think that must be it.  The HTML and XHTML DTDs do not allow
empty select widgets:

    

Note the + which means one or more.  I will leave the code alone but
add a comment.

  Neil