Nope. Cuz then php won't know it is done so the next file that starts with <?php will be problematic because php will say "what kind of stuff is this" even though that's the stuff that brings it to life. More or less. I think.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.instruction-separation.php
Only for escaping html,xhtml,xml. I took them out of all the conf files and no problems.
Any who, it's just a coding preference anyway.
57 degrees and sunny in rhode Island. B)

Most if not all files in CVS are ended by a large commentary block for the revision updates. I don't think that will work without the closing PHP tag.
If you want to omit them on your blog feel free to do so.

Good luck