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My knowledge of XML is not as strong as I would like. I have googled
for an answer to this, but cannot seem to find one. When looking at
xml generated by saving an excel spreadsheet, the first two tags are:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>

I understand that the first tag is know as declaration tag. If that is
wrong, please correct me. What I really want to know, though, and what
I cannot seem to find an answer for, is the type of tag of the second
line. Is this an example of a processing instruction? Is it non-
standard xml? What would it be called?

Your help is truly appreciated!

bill

In article <. com>,
wltiii <> wrote:

><?xml version="1.0"?>

This is the XML declaration. It has the same syntax as a processing
instruction, but technically it isn't one.

><?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>

This is a processing instruction. Its purpose is to communicate
information about the intended processing of the document. Presumably
this one means that it's meant to be processed by Microsoft Excel.

The syntax of a processing instruction is

<?name ... ?>

The ... can be any text, but it's common to make that text have the
form of attribute-value pairs, as in your example.

-- Richard
--
"Consideration shall be given to the need for as many as 32 characters
in some alphabets" - X3.4, 1963.

On Nov 1, 10:57 am, rich...@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) wrote:
> In article <1193932571.076486.161...@z9g2000hsf.googlegroups. com>,
>
> wltiii <goo...@changent.com> wrote:
> ><?xml version="1.0"?>
>
> This is the XML declaration. It has the same syntax as a processing
> instruction, but technically it isn't one.
>
> ><?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>
>
> This is a processing instruction. Its purpose is to communicate
> information about the intended processing of the document. Presumably
> this one means that it's meant to be processed by Microsoft Excel.
>
> The syntax of a processing instruction is
>
> <?name ... ?>
>
> The ... can be any text, but it's common to make that text have the
> form of attribute-value pairs, as in your example.
>
> -- Richard
> --
> "Consideration shall be given to the need for as many as 32 characters
> in some alphabets" - X3.4, 1963.

Thanks much!