site dev help megathread

The ampersand (&) needs to be escaped in HTML because it's a special character used to introduce an HTML entity. Here's a brief breakdown:

1. HTML Entities: These are used to represent reserved characters in HTML that cannot be used as they are because they have special meanings. For instance, the less-than sign (<) starts a tag. To actually display a less-than sign, you'd use its entity, <.

2. Ampersand's Role: The ampersand itself is used to begin these entities. For example, < for <, > for >, and & for &.

3. Potential for Confusion: If you were to use an ampersand directly and followed it by characters that form a known entity, the browser might interpret it as an entity rather than as the intended text. For example, if you intended to write "M&M's" but wrote it as "M&Ms", a browser might interpret the "&Ms" as an entity (even if it's not a valid one).

4. Safety: By always escaping the ampersand as &, you ensure that the ampersand is always treated as a literal character and not the start of an entity. This reduces the risk of unexpected display issues or potential vulnerabilities.

In summary, the need to escape the ampersand in HTML arises from its role as the initiator of HTML entities. Escaping it ensures clarity and prevents unintended interpretations by the browser.

because of html entities?   and so on

>codescels up whole site

>doesn't know about escape characters

Because of all other escapes like & nbsp;

Because it has a special meaning. In urls, as a separator and html, as a reference I think.

Test: &&&

What the frick kind of unescaping code is this site using?