It wasn't viable as v1, but now it's solid & clean.
Seems like it was a good opportunity to take a well understood language (C/C++/Obj-C) and after 30 years rebuild it ground-up into what it should be. Some constructs & workarounds just weren't going away without a clean-slate industry-wide fully-compatible restart.
Top problem now is getting developers to not force-unwrap optionals unless unless able to prove it won't cause a crash.
It wasn't viable as v1, but now it's solid & clean.
Seems like it was a good opportunity to take a well understood language (C/C++/Obj-C) and after 30 years rebuild it ground-up into what it should be. Some constructs & workarounds just weren't going away without a clean-slate industry-wide fully-compatible restart.
Top problem now is getting developers to not force-unwrap optionals unless unless able to prove it won't cause a crash.