by CasparLamy » Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:49 am
I agree with Phil:
you need the same database, the same search-algorithms, the same relevance-sorting. No matter if you use "classic search queries", "incremental suggestion-search" with JavaScript or "incremental suggestion-search" without JavaScript. On the server there is no difference. This suggested feature is about to use this server-feature (that you can see as blackbox and is in use on much sites today) in the client without JavaScript.
And I don't see, why this only should be able to handle by big players like Google... PHP, Content Management Systems, etc. provide search-functions today. If there would be such a feature they would support that too, so that everybody who wants to use this, can use it.
I really don't see any problems.
@macrojd:
Of course there is a general discussion which things should be done with JavaScript and which things should be done declarative with HTML/CSS. Like Phil said: there are things that only could be done with programming (games,...). But why use Scripting for things, that also can be done declarative? This declaravtive way was the success of the WWW. You can use the web without gaming, but you can't use the web without the information done declarative.
You say, less than 5% surf without JavaScript. I don't know, if this is true, but I know tht NoScript is one of the most used add-ins for Firefox. But even if it would be only 1% in the future: why reach 99%, if you can reach 100% ? If you print posters for your business, would you destroy 1% after printing?
Features like the new possibilities for forms in HTML5 were also ipossible with scripting, but there were much reasons, to also implement that declarative.
And if there comes a serious attack on Scripting, the number of usage can decrease again. I personally think, that there will never come a day, where 100% of users use JavaScript. Sometimes more will use it, sometines less. (I personally use NoScript and activate Scripting only on trusted sites like online-Banking, Mail, the pages of my university,...)
And the declarative way would have more benefits than only make it usable for people with scripting deactivated. Even if every browser would have Scripting without the possibility to deactivate that, this declarative way would have benefits for accessibility (screen-readers,...), usability and maybe even speed.
If this feature would be done declarative in HTML there is no duty to use it. But the webdesigners who want to have it that way, should be able to use that.