It's totally not a nerdy loophole. If Javascript 2 / ECMA-4 was available in most browsers, it would be exactly the wide-open cross platform flash experience everyone wants. It's just that the only implementation of that, right now, happens to be done by Adobe. The specs are open, there's nothing secret about it. There are open source alternative players (gnash, flowplayer, etc), and Adobe made Flex 3 free for devs which is all you need to write any kind of app you'd like.
Look, the only reason there's ANY implementation of ECMA4 in the browser, i.e. Flash, is that a company which doesn't make a browser took it upon itself to create a plugin for all browsers that runs it. Now everyone hates them because it's "closed", which is ironic because IE's implementation of for example the matrix 'filter' -- just to pick one random thing -- is so ludicrously archaic and different from anything webkit, that there's zero, zip, nada, NO HOPE of those two things ever converging in a way that would let a single piece of code skew the same image in both browsers.
Anyway, to other people -- I work on mac, and I write code for both canvas and as3. I wrote this: http://strikedisplay.blogspot.com. Also wrote sexypolitics. Things are...what they are. You have to face reality and use the right tool for the job. And when JS2 comes out, sure I'll be there. 'Til then, long live Adobe. Beats the alternative Mozilla/Microsoft/Google mess.
Look, the only reason there's ANY implementation of ECMA4 in the browser, i.e. Flash, is that a company which doesn't make a browser took it upon itself to create a plugin for all browsers that runs it. Now everyone hates them because it's "closed", which is ironic because IE's implementation of for example the matrix 'filter' -- just to pick one random thing -- is so ludicrously archaic and different from anything webkit, that there's zero, zip, nada, NO HOPE of those two things ever converging in a way that would let a single piece of code skew the same image in both browsers.
Anyway, to other people -- I work on mac, and I write code for both canvas and as3. I wrote this: http://strikedisplay.blogspot.com. Also wrote sexypolitics. Things are...what they are. You have to face reality and use the right tool for the job. And when JS2 comes out, sure I'll be there. 'Til then, long live Adobe. Beats the alternative Mozilla/Microsoft/Google mess.