diff --git a/sparkup.py b/sparkup.py
index 9898421..4f31b27 100755
--- a/sparkup.py
+++ b/sparkup.py
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ def __init__(self, options=None, str=''):
         self.tokens = []
         self.str = str
         self.options = options
-        if self.options.has("filetype") and self.options.get("filetype") == "xml":
+        if self.options.has("xml"):
             self.dialect = XmlDialect()
         else:
             self.dialect = HtmlDialect()
@@ -1095,7 +1095,6 @@ def has(self, attr):
     cmdline_keys = [
         ('h', 'help', 'Shows help'),
         ('v', 'version', 'Shows the version'),
-        ('', 'filetype=', 'enable html attribute fillings unless filetype=xml'),
         ('', 'no-guides', 'Deprecated'),
         ('', 'post-tag-guides', 'Adds comments at the end of DIV tags'),
         ('', 'textmate', 'Adds snippet info (textmate mode)'),
@@ -1105,6 +1104,7 @@ def has(self, attr):
         ('', 'no-last-newline', 'Skip the trailing newline'),
         ('', 'start-guide-format=', 'To be documented'), # << TODO
         ('', 'end-guide-format=', 'To be documented'),   # << TODO
+        ('', 'xml', 'Skip html attribute fillings'),
         ('', 'no-html5-self-closing', 'Use HTML4 <br /> instead of HTML5 <br>'),
     ]
 
diff --git a/vim/ftplugin/html/sparkup.vim b/vim/ftplugin/html/sparkup.vim
index 110b494..27ff97c 100644
--- a/vim/ftplugin/html/sparkup.vim
+++ b/vim/ftplugin/html/sparkup.vim
@@ -67,12 +67,11 @@ endif
 function! s:Sparkup()
     if !exists('s:sparkup')
         let s:sparkup = exists('g:sparkup') ? g:sparkup : 'sparkup'
-        let s:sparkupArgs = exists('g:sparkupArgs') ? g:sparkupArgs : '--no-last-newline'
-        let s:sparkupArgs = s:sparkupArgs . ' --filetype=' . &filetype
 
-        " check the user's path first. if not found then search relative to
-        " sparkup.vim in the runtimepath.
         if !executable(s:sparkup)
+            " If g:sparkup is not configured (and/or not found in $PATH),
+            " look for sparkup.vim in Vim's runtimepath.
+            " XXX: quite expensive for a Pathogen-like environment (where &rtp is huge)
             let paths = substitute(escape(&runtimepath, ' '), '\(,\|$\)', '/**\1', 'g')
             let s:sparkup = fnamemodify(findfile('sparkup.py', paths), ':p')
 
@@ -85,14 +84,28 @@ function! s:Sparkup()
             endif
         endif
         let s:sparkup = '"' . s:sparkup . '"'
-        let s:sparkup .= printf(' %s --indent-spaces=%s', s:sparkupArgs, &shiftwidth)
-        " If the user's settings are to indent with tabs, do so!
-        " TODO textmate version of this functionality
-        if !&expandtab
-            let s:sparkup .= ' --indent-tabs'
+        " Workaround for windows, where the Python file cannot be executed via shebang
+        if has('win32') || has('win64')
+            let s:sparkup = 'python ' . s:sparkup
         endif
     endif
-    exec '.!python ' . s:sparkup
+
+    " Build arguments list (not cached, g:sparkupArgs might change, also
+    " &filetype, &expandtab etc)
+    let sparkupArgs = exists('g:sparkupArgs') ? g:sparkupArgs : '--no-last-newline'
+    " Pass '--xml' option, if 'xml' is used as filetype (default: none/'html')
+    " NOTE: &filetype can contain multiple values, e.g. 'smarty.html'
+    if index(split(&filetype, '\.'), 'xml') >= 0
+        let sparkupArgs .= ' --xml'
+    endif
+    " If the user's settings are to indent with tabs, do so!
+    " TODO textmate version of this functionality
+    if !&expandtab
+        let sparkupArgs .= ' --indent-tabs'
+    endif
+
+    let sparkupCmd = s:sparkup . printf(' %s --indent-spaces=%s', sparkupArgs, &shiftwidth)
+    exec '.!' . sparkupCmd
     call s:SparkupNext()
 endfunction