How to encode named entity references when saving ?

[ssire]

Currently AXEL serialization of characters replaces the & ampersand with its XML named entity &. This is done by encodeEntites in defaultbrowser.js :

if (s.indexOf('&') != -1) {
  res = res.replace(/&(?![a-zA-Z]{3,5};)/g, '&'); // Avoid double encoding
}

However it avoids to convert it for named entities between 3 and 5 characters. The reasons are obscure, and why is it limited to entities between 3 and 5 characters ? Shouldn't it be limited only to XML named entities (amp, lt, gt, apos, quot) ?

For instance " is serialized as " which becomes " when loaded back into the editor which is serialized to " the second time !

At the same time &foobar; is serialized as &foobar; which is read as &foobar; and serialized back as &foobar;