[thelist] ?xml &c. declaration

> I'd never heard valid UTF-8 would allow you to
> dispense with the declaration entirely. You can specify different
> character sets if you choose (ISO-BLAH-BLAH, UTF-16).

Cite from XHTML 1.1 Recommendation:
An XML declaration... is not required... [It] is required when the character
encoding of the document is other than the default UTF-8 or UTF-16.

On the other hand (from the same place):
XHTML document authors are... encouraged to use XML declarations.

Copied from:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xhtml11-20010531/conformance.html#strict
(scroll to the page bottom for the full cite)

Kind regards.
Dmytro Borovsky.
Web Studio http://www.web-artel.net/