one thing I always wondered about (in all previous versions of Visual Studio, and this continues with the brand-new VS 2008): How comes the HTML editor offers no support for HTML character entity references? IMHO that should be one of the most basic and
fundamental features of any decent HTML editor - or am I missing something here?
VS editor is 100% Unicode and hence you can type any character. There is no 'Insert Symbol command', but it is possible to use Windows Character Map (add charmap.exe to Tools menu). If you save file in UTF-8 with signature (ASP.NET default) there is no need
to convert symbols to entities.
Generally speaking, entities came from times when browsers didn't support UTF-8 and most of the pages were in Western European encodings which didn't include special symbols.
Generally speaking, entities came from times when browsers didn't support UTF-8 and most of the pages were in Western European encodings which didn't include special symbols.
I see... IOW, you're basically saying that entities are generally to be considered deprecated nowadays - and hence no need for supporting them in editors? Just making sure. [:)]
Guido Stercken-Sorrenti
MVP Visual Developer / Visual C++
I mean that there are few other ways to get special characters in the editor, so resources get allocated to higher priority areas. We are typically getting 2-3 requests in each release cycle (i.e. 2 years), fewer and fewer with time. You can file a request
at the Connect site, we will look into adding the feature depending on how many votes the request will get.
gstercken
Member
4 Points
7 Posts
Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 22, 2007 01:18 PM|LINK
Hi all,
one thing I always wondered about (in all previous versions of Visual Studio, and this continues with the brand-new VS 2008): How comes the HTML editor offers no support for HTML character entity references? IMHO that should be one of the most basic and fundamental features of any decent HTML editor - or am I missing something here?
To explain: What I would expect is that entering any national or special character like 'ä' or '©' would automatically convert them to their relative entity references like "ä" or "©"... Or as the least minimum, there should be something like an "Insert Special Character" command with a table to choose from (much like "Insert Symbol" in MS Word).
So - is there any good reason why that functionality is completely missing from the HTML editor in VS - and that since ever?
Thanks for any insight,
Guido
VS2008 Visual Studio 2008 HTML entity reference
MVP Visual Developer / Visual C++
Mikhail Arkh...
All-Star
33139 Points
6083 Posts
Microsoft
Re: Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 23, 2007 02:40 PM|LINK
VS editor is 100% Unicode and hence you can type any character. There is no 'Insert Symbol command', but it is possible to use Windows Character Map (add charmap.exe to Tools menu). If you save file in UTF-8 with signature (ASP.NET default) there is no need to convert symbols to entities.
Generally speaking, entities came from times when browsers didn't support UTF-8 and most of the pages were in Western European encodings which didn't include special symbols.
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gstercken
Member
4 Points
7 Posts
Re: Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 23, 2007 10:41 PM|LINK
I see... IOW, you're basically saying that entities are generally to be considered deprecated nowadays - and hence no need for supporting them in editors? Just making sure. [:)]
MVP Visual Developer / Visual C++
Mikhail Arkh...
All-Star
33139 Points
6083 Posts
Microsoft
Re: Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 24, 2007 07:23 PM|LINK
I mean that there are few other ways to get special characters in the editor, so resources get allocated to higher priority areas. We are typically getting 2-3 requests in each release cycle (i.e. 2 years), fewer and fewer with time. You can file a request at the Connect site, we will look into adding the feature depending on how many votes the request will get.
------------------------------------------------------------
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Mikhail Arkh...
All-Star
33139 Points
6083 Posts
Microsoft
Re: Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 24, 2007 07:24 PM|LINK
I have to admit thought, that there are still few useful entities like &nbdp; or < > [:)]
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gstercken
Member
4 Points
7 Posts
Re: Support for HTML Character Entity References in VS?
Nov 25, 2007 08:50 PM|LINK
Thank you for explaining! :)
MVP Visual Developer / Visual C++