DOCBOOK: strange definition of & and < in iso-num.ent

[Alexander Dupuy]

In the XML entities file iso-num.ent (ISO Numeric and Special Graphic Entities V0.3 $Id: iso-num.ent,v 1.3 2002/06/13 17:39:20 nwalsh Exp $) there are the following two rather odd definitions of &amp; and &lt;:

<!ENTITY lt "&#38;#60;"> <!-- LESS-THAN SIGN -->
<!ENTITY amp "&#38;#38;"> <!-- AMPERSAND -->

which effectively define the &lt; entity as "&#60;" and &amp; as "&#38;".

In practice, this has little effect, since the XML spec predefines &amp; and &lt; as "&" and "<", and most tools won't modify those definitions, but it can cause some confusion. You can see somebody relying on these definitions in http://www.mulberrytech.com/quickref/XMLquickref.pdf (where, on the second page, the list of Predefined General Entities gives these strange definitions of &amp; and &lt;).

Unless there is some subtle reason beyond my understanding why these definitions should be given as such, they should probably be corrected in the next release.

@alex
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