I think you have the wrong ticket number.

Can you also create a pair of jsfiddles that demonstrate the issues and the fix (using the changes here) so we can review this quicker?

I had indeed the wrong ticket numer, sorry...
You can see the fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/DuNzR/1/

Unfortunately this doesn't appear to hide the search box for me.

I forked the jsfiddle and pulled in the code on this branch: http://jsfiddle.net/ydgne173/

Both fiddles give the same result under Chrome 39.

Thanks for your time.
I didn't commit on master, but on patch-3, so I updated your fiddle and it works : http://jsfiddle.net/ydgne173/1/

My bad, I completely missed that it wasn't pointing at the right branch. I've also created a jsfiddle that tests that the fix doesn't hide the search when there is text in the search field.

This commit is creating a "Uncaught TypeError: this.showSearch is not a function" when using the latest stable/3.5 branch.

See #1311 (same issue already fixed in the past)

I think this is an unfortunate change, because if createSearchChoice() is provided, the search box should be visible in order for the user to enter the desired text. What about changing:

this.showSearch(search.val());

with:

this.showSearch(search.val() || this.opts.createSearchChoice);