CDATA

My understanding is that the CDATA tag is to circumvent parser problems with unescaped characters, like <,  which are meant to operate in their mathematical capacities rather than in their text capacities.

The problem that I am experiencing is that in AMAYA 5.3 CDATA is acting as a "bit bucket of oblivion" - the code that is enclosed is totally ignored. The code is a simple JavaScript code which checks the level of a user's browser. Below a certain level, a window appears informing the user of the availability of an updated browser version. In order not to make a nuisance of itself, the checking routine writes a simple cookie to a user's computer which it later checks so as not to run again when the page reloads. This cookie lasts only for the duration of the browsing session. The code uses a > symbol in its mathematical sense, so this routine needs to be 'masked' from an XML parser. The syntax that I am using is this:
  <script type="text/javascript"  xml:space="preserve" language="Javascript1.2">
  <![CDATA[
                                  .
                                  .  the actual JavaScript code is inserted here
                                  .
  ]]>
  </script>
The code is not executing at all, and if I use comment markers, <!-- ... -->, the result is identical. So, the questions are these: is my syntax incorrect? -or- is this an implementation 'bug' in AMAYA -or- is this a design 'bug' in the functioning of CDATA? 
                                                                            - Mark
Mark Lee
Smithsonian Institution
Electronic HelpDesk & Software Distribution System Webmaster
mlee@sivm.si.edu