character entities using hex

I've got a student who's attempted to use the hex representation for a few
character entities, and the validator is throwing up an interesting error: 

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.xoom.com%2F_XOOM%2Fne
t_miner%2F02%2Fcharent.html

eg: 

 <LI>Hexadecimal: <STRONG>f7</STRONG> &#xf7;

  Error: "XF7" is not a function name


Aside from likely interoperability problems in using the hex version --
what is the validation issue here? 

Ann
---

Author of:  Effective Web Design: Master the Essentials
10/99 - Mastering XML, 12/99 - HTML By Example, 2nd. Ed.

Founder, WebGeek Communications            http://www.webgeek.com
Vice President-Finance, HTML Writers Guild http://www.hwg.org
Director, HWG Online Education             http://www.hwg.org/services/classes

Received on Tuesday, 26 October 1999 11:07:09 UTC