Object.create wrapper with shorter property descriptor syntax and graceful handling for browsers not supporting it

ObjectCreate.js

function ObjectCreate(proto, properties) {
    var propDesc = {}, p, pd, pdStr, ES5 = !!(Object.create && Object.defineProperties);
    if (!ES5) {
        var F = function() {};
        F.prototype = proto;
        var o = new F();
    }
    for (p in properties) {
        pd = properties[p], pdStr = pd.pd.toLowerCase();
        if (ES5) {
            propDesc[p] = {
                value: pd.value,
                writable: pdStr.indexOf('w')>=0,
                enumerable: pdStr.indexOf('e')>=0,
                configurable: pdStr.indexOf('c')>=0
            };
        }
        else {
            o[p] = pd.value
        }
    }
    
    return ES5 ? Object.create(proto, propDesc) : o;

}

How to use it:

1. define the prototype object

var proto = {
    hello: function() {
        alert( this.name + ': hello' )
    }
};

2. pass it to ObjectCreate

ObjectCreate( proto, {
    name: {
        value: 'Karol',
        pd: 'e'
    },
    age: {
        value: 12,
        pd: 'we'
    }
} );

This is how ES5 equivalent looks like - (not supported by IE 8 and older)

Object.create( proto, {
    name: {
        value: 'Karol',
        enumerable: true
    },
    age: {
        value: 12,
        writable: true,
        enumerable: true
    },
});

The wrapper does the EcmaScript 5 object creation for capable browsers and degrades to Douglas Crockford's pattern for older JS engines.

Special sauce:
pd string is a shorthand for property descriptor object, for example:

//'wec' is:
{
    writable: true,
    enumerable: true,
    configurable: true
}

//'c' is:
{
    configurable: true
}

You asked on twitter. No problems, one suggestion:

        propDesc[p] = {
            value: pd.value,
            writable: pdStr.indexOf('w') >= 0,
            enumerable: pdStr.indexOf('e') >= 0,
            configurable: pdStr.indexOf('c' )>= 0
       }

Performance is not an issue until profiling says so but this seems cleaner and it will make one "hidden class" or "inferred type" instead of several for the 'wec' combinations actually used.

/be