Charles:
The scheme you suggest is generally for DOS and Windows based PCs. It will also work for other OS's that support PC compatible BIOS interface to the keyboard. However it is not portable to other systems. Portability is the true reason that HTML supports the specially quoted types of character so that the browser in use can translate the special characters into the proper font & glyph number for the underlying OS. Here is a list of symbol types available:

&lt;       <     
&gt;       >     
&amp;      &    
&quot;     "   
&nbsp;         
&reg;      ®    
&copy;     ©   
&pound;    £  
&cent;     ¢   
&Agrave;   À 
&Aacute;   Á 
&Acirc;    Â  
&Atilde;   Ã 
&Auml;     Ä   
&Aring;    Å  
&AElig;    Æ  
&Ccedil;   Ç 
&Egrave;   È 
&Eacute;   É 
&Ecirc;    Ê  
&Euml;     Ë   
&Igrave;   Ì 
&Iacute;   Í 
&Icirc;    Î  
&Iuml;     Ï   
&ETH;      Ð    
&Ntilde;   Ñ 
&Ograve;   Ò 
&Oacute;   Ó 
&Ocirc;    Ô  
&Otilde;   Õ 
&Ouml;     Ö   
&Oslash;   Ø 
&Uacute;   Ú 
&Ugrave;   Ù 
&Ucirc;    Û  
&Uuml;     Ü   
&Yacute;   Ý 
&THORN;    Þ  
&szlig;    ß  
&aacute;   á 
&agrave;   à 
&acirc;    â  
&atilde;   ã 
&auml;     ä   
&aring;    å  
&aelig;    æ  
&ccedil;   ç 
&egrave;   è 
&eacute;   é 
&ecirc;    ê  
&euml;     ë   
&igrave;   ì 
&iacute;   í 
&iuml;     ï   
&eth;      ð    
&ntilde;   ñ 
&oacute;   ó 
&ograve;   ò 
&otilde;   õ 
&ocirc;    ô  
&ouml;     ö   
&oslash;   ø 
&ugrave;   ù 
&uacute;   ú 
&ucirc;    û  
&uuml;     ü   
&yacute;   ý 
&thorn;    þ  
&yuml;     ÿ   
&para;     ¶   
&frac14;   ¼ 
&frac12;   ½ 
&frac34;   ¾ 
&iquest;   ¿ 
&iexcl;    ¡  
&sup1;     ¹   
&sup2;     ²   
&sup3;     ³   
&plusmn;   ± 
&deg;      °    
&micro;    µ  
&middot;   · 
&laquo;    «  
&raquo;    »  
&ordf;     ª   
&sect;     §   
&brvbar;   ¦ 
&yen;      ¥    
&curren;   ¤ 
&macr;     ¯   
&cedil;    ¸  
&acute;    ´
&not;      ¬    

Michael Karas