I agree that it would be better to have a only gnu software running on the php site but swf is completely free. I would also like to know where you get your statistics from to show that less people are running js then are swf. I would also like to know the difference in the numbers.
Brendan
This is not about GNU software, or free/open software: JavaScript is natively supported in all current browsers with a GUI. To view SWF, you need a plugin. All browsers that support the SWF plugin also support JavaScript, however, there are no browsers that support the SWF plugin, but do not support JavaScript. This means there cannot be more browsers supporting SWF then there are supporting JavaScript. I can't give you real numbers, but the difference is at least 1: I use Mozilla without the SWF plugin.
SWF also breaks common GUI widgets, and switching between them. You can tab around a HTML form, but this no longer works when you mix it with SWF widgets.
If we would choose SWF, this would completely replace the current search box. If we choose JS, this would only be an extension to the current search box. This means users without SWF can't see the search box at all, while users without JS can use the search box, they just don't get instant results. Think about users in a limited situation: sometimes SSH and Lynx is all you have, when you need to search for the correct syntax of a function.
Greetings,
Jan Fabry
