"Jan Fabry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > JavaScript is > natively supported in all current browsers with a GUI. To view SWF, you > need a plugin.
SWF comes installed or at least has an option to be installed in every browser I know of. (windows only) Javascript in Opera is a separate download. It is a option to install. >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. Agreed, however you can disable Javascript and can't disable swf in many browsers. Also, swf always displays the same way on every computer. Unlike js, that displays differently on every browser. To what degree of support do you want to argue. >I can't give you > real numbers, but the difference is at least 1: I use Mozilla without > the SWF plugin. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp suggests that over 10% of web viewers have js disabled. Although I don't know if I can trust them http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/ says that over 97% of web browsers have flash installed. > > 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. It is a pain in the ass. > > 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. If it were set up properly, people without SWF would have the normal search box and the others would simply not know about the feature. Unless, they have a browser that automatically downloads and installs the swf components and then displays the content. I am not trying to argue for or against swf on php.net but am simply trying to point out what I see to be some overlooked strengths of swf. Brendan
