Using Ascii Character Set Instead Of Symbol

[SmokingMan]

I've often wondered about whether it is better to use the ASCII charater set instead of the actual character such as a "$". I know that modern browsers support and render these characters, but is it better to use the ASCII Character set to be sure that all browsers will render a character correctly? I realize that there are some characters that have to be rendered via the ASCII set, but should you use it to be consistent and to avoid any problems with rendering?Or am I just concerning myself with minutia that just doesn't really matter?

[jeffman]

Are you talking about using entities (like & instead of &)? In the case of $, that character is part of the 7-bit ascii set, that is, the first 128 characters, which is universal. (I.e., don't worry about them.) Entities are usually preferred for characters 128-255, which are not universal. Curly quotes, accents, etc. The exception, of course, is & itself, because & is special. Always use that entity in place of the symbol.Or, to make this plain, except for &, all the characters you can see on an American keyboard are safe. If you can only form a character using control, option, or meta keys, use the correct entity instead.