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— (—) is more widely supported than — as not every browser has a full internal listing for all of the named character entities. And — is one of the most commonly used entities, so the likelihood of other less common entities working in all browsers is low.̓Απολιθώσεις δ' εἰσὶ διτταί: [3] ἡ μὲν του̂ νοητικου̂ ἀπολίθωσις, ἡ δὲ του̂ ἐντρεπτικου̂, ὅταν τις παρατεταγμένος ᾐ̂ μὴ ἐπινεύειν τοι̂ς ἐναργέσι μηδ' ἀπὸ τω̂ν μαχομένων ἀφίστασθαι. [4] οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ τὴν μὲν σωματικὴν ἀπονέκρωσιν φοβούμεθα καὶ πάντ' ἂν μηχανησαίμεθα ὑπὲρ του̂ μὴ περιπεσει̂ν τοιούτῳ τινί, τη̂ς ψυχη̂ς δ' ἀπονεκρουμένης οὐδὲν ἡμι̂ν μέλει. [5] καὶ νὴ Δία ἐπὶ αὐτη̂ς τη̂ς ψυχη̂ς ἂν μὲν ᾐ̂ οὕτως διακείμενος, ὥστε μηδενὶ παρακολουθει̂ν μηδὲ συνιέναι μηδέν, καὶ του̂τον κακω̂ς ἔχειν οἰόμεθα: ἂν δέ τινος τὸ ἐντρεπτικὸν καὶ αἰδη̂μον ἀπονεκρωθῃ̂, του̂το ἔτι καὶ δύναμιν καλου̂μεν. —Epictetus, Works, Book I, Chapter 5, Paragraph 2
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/
As one uses the named entities, one will remember them. Less likely the hex codes. Finally, most browsers are far more likely to support the named entities than they are any arbitrary hex code.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:35 AM on July 14, 2004