Question on HTML codes

[Frank1]

I'm studying HTML with an online tutorial. I use notepad to write the documents. I am now reading about using code for special characters such as: For the dollar sign you should use $ and there are other different codes for the double quotation mark and so forth. However if I simply put in the dollar sign or the double quotation mark, it still shows up correctly in the document. I'm sure there must be something that I don't understand, but why use the special code when it works without them?
Thanks

 

[ambriel]

It may well work ok on your PC but there is no guarantee it will work on someone else's PC, especially if they are located in another part of the world where the ASCII codes are mapped onto different symbols, or perhaps if they're not using a PC.

Using the character entity codes maintains compatibility for these special characters and symbols.

 

[Frank1]

It may well work ok on your PC but there is no guarantee it will work on someone else's PC, especially if they are located in another part of the world where the ASCII codes are mapped onto different symbols, or perhaps if they're not using a PC.

Using the character entity codes maintains compatibility for these special characters and symbols.

That makes sense. I'll continue to use the special charters. Thank you.