entities are not "information"

I was a little surprised to see that the XML Information Set proposal
contained the notion of "entity".  I am a relative newcomer to the world
of XML so perhaps my understanding is off base, but it seems to me that
XML entities - as nothing more than a syntactic string substitution
mechanism - convey or represent no semantics whatsoever.  Therefore, to
my mind, "entities" per se do not convey "information" - so why is there
a requirement in the XML Information Set for them?


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William C. Burkett
Product Data Integration Technologies, Inc.
100 W. Broadway, Suite 540
Long Beach CA 90802
wburkett@pdit.com, www.pdit.com
562-495-6500 x13 (voice), 562-495-6509 (fax)