Grail Test Page: Iconic Entities

There is a W3C proposal that browsers support special icons that can be built into the browser and addressed as entities, allowing common icons to be used with lower bandwidth consumption and high browser control over semantic interpretation of the icons. This is a test: &archive; is the "archive" entity, and &text.document; represents a text document. This: &alert.red; is an extension iconic entity provided in my .grail/icons directory. Another one: &doesnt.exist; does not exist.

More information about the proposal can be found in the working draft HTML Predefined Icon-Like Symbols.

Other entity representation issues involve handling the matter of entity termination. The following rules are used by Grail in resolving general entity references:

1. If the name matches one of the textual entities defined for use with HTML 2.0, the text of the replacement is inserted into the document and the optional ERC token is discarded.

2. If the name matches one of the iconic entities defined for HTML 3.0, one of those proposed in the W3C technical report, or any additional iconic entity provided by the installation or user, it is replaced by a graphic representation corresponding to that entity and the optional ERC token is discarded.

3. If the name does not match any known textual or iconic entity, the text of the entity reference is placed in the document. This includes any optional ERC token coded in the document.

This sentence contains an ``amp'' entity without an ERC token: & . This sentence contains an ``amp'' entity with an ERC token: & . This entity: &doesnt.exist; uses the ERC token; this one: &doesnt.exist does not.