void serialize(String indent, PrintWriter out) {
  out.print(indent + "<" + tag + " " + dumpattributes());

  final String closeTag;

  if (element == null) {
    closeTag = "/>";
  }
  else if (element.getClass() == Vector.class) {
    out.println(">");
    for (int i = 0; i < element.size(); i++) {
      element.get(i).serialize(indent + "  ", out);
    }
    closeTag = indent + "</" + tag + ">";
  }
  else {
    closeTag = ">" + element + "</" + tag + ">";
  }

  out.println(closeTag);
  return;
}
 

public myXML(BufferedReader in) throws myXMLException, myXMLEncodingException, IOException {
    myFileReader reader = new myFileReader(in);
    try {
        while (this.getTag() == null && reader.ready()) {
            // continue until we have a valid root tag or run out of file content
            readXML(this, reader);
        }
    }
    catch (RuntimeException e) {
        System.err.println("myXML exception "+e);
        e.printStackTrace();
        throw e;
    } 
    if (debug) System.out.println("XML file successfully loaded");
}

boolean ready() throws IOException {
    return reader.ready();
}

case START_TAG:
    if (debug) System.out.println("readXML: state START_TAG, c="+(char)ch);
    state = popState(stack);
    if (ch == '/') {
        stack.push(new Integer(state));
        state = CLOSE_TAG;
    }
    else if (ch == '?') {
        state = DOCTYPE;
    }
    else if (xml.getTag() != null) {
        in.unread(ch);
        in.unread('<');
        myXML child = xml.addElement(null);
        readXML(child, in);
        if (child.getTag() == null) {
            xml.removeElement(child);
        }
        state = popState(stack);
    }
    else {
        stack.push(new Integer(state));
        state = OPEN_TAG;
        sb.append((char)ch);
    }
    break;

case COMMENT: // Inside <!-- ... -->
    if (debug) System.out.println("readXML: state COMMENT, c="+(char)ch);
    if (ch == '>' && sb.toString().endsWith("--")) {  // found the end of a comment
        sb.setLength(0);
        state = popState(stack);
        if (debug) System.out.println("readXML: state COMMENT - Comment complete...returning");
        return;
    } 
    sb.append((char)ch);
    break;