Entities references vs. XRef as a way to manage changing glossary

[Taro Ikai <tikai@ABINITIO.COM>]

I'm trying to find the best referencing mechanism to synchronize glossary 
terms 
between a software resource file and the product documentation.

I've so far tried to use entity references, but since XSLT resolves entity 

references in its output, and the references do not stay references in the 

output, it's beginning to seem like I should find another mechanism to 
serve the same end.

One candidate I can think of is XRef.

I can have an extra document whose sole purpose is to supply text for 
given id references. So given a .rc file like:

  STRINGTABLE DISCARDABLE
  BEGIN
    IDS_TEXT_BEEF  "Beef"
    IDS_TEXT_CHICKEN  "Chicken"
  END

I will write a script to produce a file ref.xml, which includes:

  <para id="beef"><title>Beef</title></para>
  <para id="chicken"><title>Chicken</title></para>

In my document content, I can use references of the form:

  <para>Would you like <xref linkend="chicken"/> or <xref 
linkend="beef"/>?</para>

This way, whenever the resource definition in the .rc file changes, the 
document 
will pick it up. But the notation is certainly longer than entity 
references, and I think 
this is an unintended use of XRef.

Is there a better way to do this?

Taro