I have a great deal of text that has both endashes and emdashes (– and — respectively) within html files as plain text. Since my editor gladly converts this (nary a complaint) I usually don't pay any attention. However I recently noticed a problem with HTML::Entities encode_entities function; i.e. 
encode_entities("How the Chimney–sweeper's cry,")

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produces: 
How the Chimney–sweeper's cry,

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rather than: 
How the Chimney”sweeper's cry,

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Now that I've spotted the problem, I can easily do the necessary regex massage and have it go away, but I was wondering if anyone knows the necessary Unicode/UTF-8 incantation magic to avoid the problem in the first place (if in fact that is what is)? Note that the emdash is translated to — instead of „ I have not checked the other typical HTML typographical elements as yet, these are so common that the problem surfaced fairly quickly.

Note:I leave the typos as written, but I really meant &#8212 and &#8211 *sigh*

Note: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/631406/what-is-the-difference-between-em-dash-151-and-8212 seems pertainent...

--hsm

"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

In reply to A problem with dash typography by hsmyers

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