diff --git a/basis/xml/dispatch/dispatch.factor b/basis/xml/dispatch/dispatch.factor
index 613836aae2..9c4a2448c6 100644
--- a/basis/xml/dispatch/dispatch.factor
+++ b/basis/xml/dispatch/dispatch.factor
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ M: no-tag summary
     drop "The tag-dispatching word has no method for the given tag name" ;
 
 : compile-tags ( word xtable -- quot )
-    >alist swap '[ _ no-tag boa throw ] [ ] like suffix
+    >alist swap '[ _ no-tag boa throw ] suffix
     '[ dup main>> _ case ] ;
 
 : define-tags ( word -- )
diff --git a/basis/xml/tests/test.factor b/basis/xml/tests/test.factor
index 337c19bfe1..dcd428d9e6 100644
--- a/basis/xml/tests/test.factor
+++ b/basis/xml/tests/test.factor
@@ -67,3 +67,4 @@ SYMBOL: xml-file
 [ "x" "<" ] [ "<x value='&lt;'/>" string>xml [ name>> main>> ] [ "value" attr ] bi ] unit-test
 [ "foo" ] [ "<!DOCTYPE foo [<!ENTITY bar 'foo'>]><x>&bar;</x>" string>xml children>string ] unit-test
 [ T{ xml-chunk f V{ "hello" } } ] [ "hello" string>xml-chunk ] unit-test
+[ "1.1" ] [ "<?xml version='1.1'?><x/>" string>xml prolog>> version>> ] unit-test
diff --git a/basis/xml/writer/writer-tests.factor b/basis/xml/writer/writer-tests.factor
index d09ae08b3f..f414264e11 100644
--- a/basis/xml/writer/writer-tests.factor
+++ b/basis/xml/writer/writer-tests.factor
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 ! Copyright (C) 2005, 2009 Daniel Ehrenberg
 ! See http://factorcode.org/license.txt for BSD license.
 USING: xml.data xml.writer tools.test fry xml kernel multiline
-xml.writer.private io.streams.string xml.utilities sequences ;
+xml.writer.private io.streams.string xml.utilities sequences
+io.encodings.utf8 io.files accessors io.directories ;
 IN: xml.writer.tests
 
 \ write-xml must-infer
@@ -59,3 +60,9 @@ IN: xml.writer.tests
 [ "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<foo>\n  bar\n</foo>" ]
 [ "<foo>         bar            </foo>" string>xml pprint-xml>string ] unit-test
 [ "<foo'>" ] [ "<foo'>" <unescaped> xml>string ] unit-test
+
+: test-file "resource:basis/xml/writer/test.xml" ;
+
+[ ] [ "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-16BE'?><x/>" string>xml test-file utf8 [ write-xml ] with-file-writer ] unit-test
+[ "x" ] [ test-file file>xml body>> name>> main>> ] unit-test
+[ ] [ test-file delete-file ] unit-test
diff --git a/basis/xml/writer/writer.factor b/basis/xml/writer/writer.factor
index a713790973..4b80e0818e 100755
--- a/basis/xml/writer/writer.factor
+++ b/basis/xml/writer/writer.factor
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ M: sequence write-xml
 M: prolog write-xml
     "<?xml version=" write
     [ version>> write-quoted ]
-    [ " encoding=" write encoding>> write-quoted ]
+    [ drop " encoding=\"UTF-8\"" write ]
     [ standalone>> [ " standalone=\"yes\"" write ] when ] tri
     "?>" write ;
 
diff --git a/basis/xml/xml.factor b/basis/xml/xml.factor
index 5ca486a57f..57c1b6dbd3 100755
--- a/basis/xml/xml.factor
+++ b/basis/xml/xml.factor
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ USING: accessors arrays io io.encodings.binary io.files
 io.streams.string kernel namespaces sequences strings io.encodings.utf8
 xml.data xml.errors xml.elements ascii xml.entities
 xml.writer xml.state xml.autoencoding assocs xml.tokenize
-combinators.short-circuit xml.name ;
+combinators.short-circuit xml.name splitting ;
 IN: xml
 
 <PRIVATE
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ M: object process add-child ;
 M: prolog process
     xml-stack get
     { V{ { f V{ "" } } } V{ { f V{ } } } } member?
-    [ bad-prolog ] unless drop ;
+    [ bad-prolog ] unless add-child ;
 
 : before-main? ( -- ? )
     xml-stack get {
@@ -82,14 +82,23 @@ M: closer process
     ! this does *not* affect the contents of the stack
     [ notags ] unless* ;
 
+: ?first ( seq -- elt/f ) 0 swap ?nth ;
+
 : get-prolog ( seq -- prolog )
-    first dup prolog? [ drop default-prolog ] unless ;
+    { "" } ?head drop
+    ?first dup prolog?
+    [ drop default-prolog ] unless ;
+
+: cut-prolog ( seq -- newseq )
+    [ [ prolog? not ] [ "" = not ] bi and ] filter ;
 
 : make-xml-doc ( seq -- xml-doc )
     [ get-prolog ] keep
-    dup [ tag? ] find
-    [ assure-tags cut rest no-pre/post no-post-tags ] dip
-    swap <xml> ;
+    dup [ tag? ] find [
+        assure-tags cut
+        [ cut-prolog ] [ rest ] bi*
+        no-pre/post no-post-tags
+    ] dip swap <xml> ;
 
 ! * Views of XML