New name - "fumblefingers." "&inif indeed!"

∞ = ∞
∞ = ∞
∞ = ∞

HTML doesn't 'care' whether you use decimal character codes (&#number;), hex character codes (&#xnumber), or entity names (&name;). Your browser may handle one or the other a little better, especially for "strange" characters; but it makes no real difference how you code them.

It might be argued, for purposes of illustration at least, that the "A" on your keyboard is only a mnemonic for "ASCII 065" - or more likely ASCII X41, the hex value, since the number is what 'goes into' the program.

It could also be argued that your html browser "correctly" displays all characters which it receives - if we accept that it has a special symbol meaning IDUNNOWHATTHEHELLTHISCHARACTERIS.

The "undisplayed" character is not lost, and if you "format" it to a font that knows how to draw it, it will (almost always) be displayed.

The difficulty is in finding a suitable font.

For the truly curious, Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT: Microsoft Programming Series, Nadine Kano, Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-55615-840-8 has some interesting stuff. Be aware that this book dates back to 1968, and runs to 750 pages. Last known list price was about $35 US. A new edition, to include Win2000 and WinXP is promised soon, perhaps even this year - but this is a Mickey$oft schedule.

Any ASCII character, decimal value 32 thru 127, should "come across" for virtually any DOS or Windows program.

Any ANSI character, decimal value 32 thru 255, should "come across" in any Windows program, and in DOS programs if you boot ANSI.SYS. Be aware that definitions of the ANSI character set are "loose."

Many UNICODE characters, decimal value 32 thru "manymany" may "come across" in HTML, but it depends almost entirely on your installed fonts.

I am told that Win2000 and WinXP, and associated "office suites" permit direct entry of Unicode character values, using "Alt-u#####", where ##### is the decimal UNICODE character number entered on NumPad. Win98 and earlier allow you to enter ANSI characters as Alt-### (again ### on the NumPad), but this will not work for numbers above 255.

The fonts Palatino and Tahoma are "Microsoft" fonts, and have been supplemented to display a few characters not normally in "Western Roman" fonts. For this reason, your odds of displaying unusual characters are slightly enhanced if you use one of these two fonts in your browser. As an example, the non-ASCII character for the euro, €, has been inserted at ASCII decimal 128.

Those using "European" or other non-US English Mickey$oft systems may have the same "font" but be set up to use a different "font page," which will give significantly different glyph substitutions.

John