18. The character processor device of claim 13 wherein operating a primary state machine to control invocation of the respective construct state machines comprises: detecting a sequence of characters representative of a processing instruction element and invoking a processing instruction element state machine; and operating the processing instruction element state machine to produce at least one processing instruction data element encoded item containing type, length, value representations for at least one of: a processing instruction data element; a partial processing instruction data element.
18. The character processor device of claim 13 wherein operating a primary state machine to control invocation of the respective construct state machines comprises: detecting a sequence of characters representative of a processing instruction element and invoking a processing instruction element state machine; and operating the processing instruction element state machine to produce at least one processing instruction data element encoded item containing type, length, value representations for at least one of: a processing instruction data element; a partial processing instruction data element. 19. The character processor device of claim 18 wherein the processing instruction is a non-declaration processing instruction and wherein operating the processing instruction element state machine to produce at least one processing instruction data element encoded item comprises: producing a non-declaration processing instruction target data element; and producing a non-declaration processing instruction value data element.