Moreover, the approach with character-maps to get named character references will result in the need 
  for a DOCTYPE in your files. I would prefer UTF-8 or 'us-ascii' coded files. Doctype handling in 
  Cocoon is a bit awkward..

perhaps yes, 
I just suggested that as that  is actually what the subject line of the
thread asked for: using  "entities" requires a doctype. The file
encoding (ascii, utf8, whatever, .. is of course unrelated to the
question of whether you use entity references or chartacter references.

David

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