SAN FRANCISCO, California — When Doug Crockford first encountered JavaScript, his first impression was that it was “one of the most incompetent pieces of software engineering [he'd] ever seen.”

His opinion, which is highly regarded since he’s widely considered to be the grand poobah of JavaScript, is one that was shared by many in the web’s early days. However, as the language has grown and the era of the web app is in full swing, it’s reaching a new level of success far beyond what he (or anyone) could have predicted.

The video above, shot here yesterday at the Web 2.0 Expo by the conference organizers at O’Reilly Media, compresses several of Crockford’s thoughts on JavaScript and HTML5 into five minutes.

He has hope for HTML5, but he has issues with the way it’s being developed. Primarily, he’s concerned that there are too many security holes, and that “there’s too much kitchen sink in HTML5″ — excessive duplication of the elements and not enough discipline in the code.

Crockford also appeared on a panel Wednesday about the future of the browser. Ajaxian editor Dion Almaer was the moderator, and he’s posted an excellent summary of the themes that were discussed, along with a few of his own thoughts.

See Also:

• 8 Sessions You Won’t Want to Miss at Web 2.0 Expo
• Doug Crockford: An Inconvenient API
• Who Needs Flash?