RE: recognize character entities

>You can't detect these in XSLT, because the XML parser expands
>the character
>entity before the XSLT processor gets to see it. If you really need to
>distinguish a Euro sign written as € from one written as
>a real Euro
>character (from one written as €, if that's the right
>code), then you
>need to preprocess the XML to flag these so they survive the
>journey through
>the XML parser. For example, you could use a Perl script that replaces
>&euro; by <?ent euro?>.
>
>But this is against the spirit of XML: the entity reference is
>supposed to
>be treated by the receiving application in exactly the same way as its
>expansion would be treated.


Is it in the spirit of XML to let the parser expand the entity references back
to themselves? For example, in the above situation, is this a reasonable thing
to do:

<!ENTITY euro "&amp;euro;">

Mike