Additional XML Features
There are a few other features of XML that are not commonly used by document authors. This section discusses each of them briefly, along with their intended usage.
Processing Instructions
As with any data format or programming language, there will always be applications that were not foreseen by the language designers. The processing instruction provides an “official” escape hatch for developers who need to work beyond the constraints of XML itself. This is the basic syntax of a processing instruction:
<?target_name [app. specific data]?>
The only part of the processing instruction that is recognized by the XML parser is the target name. This must be an XML name, and it may be associated with a declared XML notation ...
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