title: Styling attributes not functioning on merge tags
body: <p><strong>Background</strong></p>
  
  <p>I have found styling attributes not functioning on the <em>merge</em> tags, either apply attributes separately or apply a style.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Known Solutions</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Apply styling attributes on the tag that make use of the layout works. For example, <em>include</em> tags and custom tags.</p></li>
  <li><p>Just don't make use of merge.</p></li>
  <li><p>Apply styling programmatically.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>However, I am looking for better solutions.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Why?</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>It is messy. I have to apply the styling attributes every time I make use of the layout. I make it as an separated layout because they are meant to be reused.</p></li>
  <li><p>I am intentionally using <em>merge</em> tag as they have to be the immediate children of the parent layout. For example, the tags are children of a <em>LinearLayout</em>. I apply <em>layout_width="0dp"</em> and <em>layout_weight="1"</em> to have them equally spanning in the parent layout.</p></li>
  <li><p>Reason #2 <em>plus</em> the tags are generated programmatically. Thus, I can only apply styling programmatically. It is ugly and extra efforts are needed for maintenance.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>Goal</strong></p>
  
  <p>Satisfactory workaround(s).</p>
  
  <p><strong>XML Tags for Illustration Purpose</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;merge xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      style="@style/CustomStyle"&gt;
      &lt;!-- Omitted --&gt;
  &lt;/merge&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><em>And</em></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;merge xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="0dp"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:layout_weight="1"&gt;
      &lt;!-- Omitted --&gt;
  &lt;/merge&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Both the above tags are not styled.</p>