That's really interesting, Thanks Lachlan. I remember seeing them referred to as "character entities" in HTML 4.01 - was that an error in the publication, or is that what they were called back then...?
Lisa >-----Original Message----- >From: Lachlan Hunt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Thursday, 19 October 2006 1:30 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [WSG] Entity Name vs Entity Number > >James Oppenheim wrote: >> A quick question. When marking up XHTML should I be using >entity names >> or entity numbers? Is there a standard or best practice? > >The correct terminology for "entity numbers" is "character >reference", they are not entities. > >Read this whole article which explains everything you need to >know about them. Regarding the terminology, take note of the >first and second comments, which point out a mistake I made in >the article. > >http://lachy.id.au/log/2005/10/char-refs > >You'll find the answer to your specific question under the >heading "External Entity References". Generally, you should >avoid named entity references in XHTML if favour of numeric or >hex character references. > >http://lachy.id.au/log/2005/10/char-refs#charref-entity-ext > >Even better than using references is to encode the file as >UTF-8 and just enter the real characters. > >-- >Lachlan Hunt >http://lachy.id.au/ > > >******************************************************************* >List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm >Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm >Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >******************************************************************* > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
