//! generates a list with xml special characters 
   void createSpecialCharacterList() 
   { 
      // list of strings containing special symbols, 
      // the first character is the special character, 
      // the following is the symbol string without trailing &. 

      SpecialCharacters.push_back("&"); 
      SpecialCharacters.push_back("<lt;"); 
      SpecialCharacters.push_back(">gt;"); 
      SpecialCharacters.push_back("\"quot;"); 
      SpecialCharacters.push_back("'apos;"); 
       
   }