Newbie quesiton.

[JustSomeGuy]

What is the purpose of the ?s in this xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>

can this be written as:
<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
</?xml>

 

[Bjoern Hoehrmann]

* JustSomeGuy wrote in comp.text.xml:

What is the purpose of the ?s in this xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>

Basically to ensure that this is not confused with e.g.

<xml version="1.0">

which would not make much sense.

can this be written as:
<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
</?xml>

No. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#NT-XMLDecl for details.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

* JustSomeGuy wrote in comp.text.xml:

Basically to ensure that this is not confused with e.g.

<xml version="1.0">

which would not make much sense.

Why wouldn't that make sense?
Is there something special about the '?' character in xml?
ie is this legal?

<?foo v="100"?>
or

 

[Bjoern Hoehrmann]

* JustSomeGuy wrote in comp.text.xml:

Why wouldn't that make sense?

People and possibly processors would confuse it with element syntax, for example.

Is there something special about the '?' character in xml?

Well, to some extend yes, it is used to construct the XML declaration and processing instruction.

ie is this legal?

<?foo v="100"?>

Yes, that's a processing instruction, check http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml to learn more about processing instructions.

or
<?foo v="100">
</?foo>

That's legal if there is a closing ?> following it.