Hi Thanks - I guess that answers the question on changing the behaviour of the module without changing the module, but having said that this particular code did not bring about the desired behaviour. That's still the piece I can't figure out what's happening? The hash in the module: 
%entity2char

[download]
Contains the following key value pairs that seem to govern this behaviour. 

 frac14 => chr(188),
 frac12 => chr(189),
 frac34 => chr(190),

[download]
Presumably chr(188) and its brethren are taken straight from the HTML, then fracNN to which it is mapped is somehow translated to display as the tiny one character wide fraction symbol. But stating: 
# switch package
package HTML::Entities;
$entity2char{frac14} = '.25';
$entity2char{frac12} = '.5';
$entity2char{frac34} = '.75';

# switch back to your package
package main;
# go on with your code

[download]
Does not seem to change that behaviour?

In reply to Re^2: frac12 to decimal by CColin
in thread frac12 to decimal by CColin

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.