Joe,

> Almost right. There one thing which may come before the XML Declaration 
> or Text Declaration is a byte order mark.
> 
> If you look at the appendix to the XML Recommendation which deals 
> specifically with this -- and which I believe I posted a URL for -- they 
> describe exactly how to handle this.

Actually, I've get a copy of the Appendix handy,
so I can look up how to deak rith the BOM, so
this isn't a problem.

it was only the encoding detection algorithm in
the absence of both a BOM *and* XML declaration
that I was concerned about.

PS: If you send a reply to thus posting I won't be
answering fir a few days as I'll be away during
that time.

I live in Sydney (Austraia, not the one in Nova
Scotia :-), and I'm taking the wife, kids and
neices to the Blue Mountains, about 50 miles away
(which get their name from the fumes given off
by the eucalypytus trees, which mske thenn look
blue from a distance), where we can marvel at the
World Heritage wilderness iwth its giant escarme-
nts (it's the closest we have to the Grand Canyon,
but rainforested), and perhaps catch some snow
this time of year (it's winter in our part of
the world, and snow, while quite common in the
Highlands, is unheard-of enough in Sydney - where
it hasn't snowed in 170 yrars - for us to want
to travel to see it :-)

Russell