Android is already a multi-language system. You can write apps in Java, you can write them in C/C++, or you can write them using Go. Not only that, but Google are also developing
a framework to let you write apps in Dart. Could they add Swift? Sure, why not? There are loads of apps, loads of code, which is being shared between those platforms every single day. It's really not a very big deal. You can run software written in all kinds of languages on your PC/Mac, why should it be such a shock that your phone can do that, too? Google could have added in Obj-C support at any time (it's also Open-Source), and in fact,
Microsoft already did (not only that, they ported over the freaking iOS APIs, too!).
That's right, you can write Universal Windows Apps in Objective-C using UIKit and run them on your PC, windows tablet and smartphone (so basically just your PC).
Yes. This has been known forever. Also, do to litigation issues with Oracle over Java, Google has been unable to update to anything newer than Java 6 (which is pretty old now - Java 8 came out 2 years ago and 9 is coming out soon.) So moving to Swift could be an advantageous move.
I'm sorry, but you're not up-to-date on the Android/Java situation. Android currently does not conform to any Sun/Oracle JDK - 5,6,7 or 8. That's actually what the Oracle litigation is about - Oracle owns the copyrights to those APIs. Notice we're not talking patents here, but copyrights - the same things musicians use to protect a song.
Oracle is saying that Google copied the "structure, sequence and organisation" of 37 specific Java API packages. Normally, Oracle might let them use the Java copyrights in order to promote the platform, but Google made enough changes that code written to work with Android SDK packages isn't compatible with the original Oracle SDK packages. So they're fragmenting the platform and doing damage to Oracle's business.
So MacRumors got this totally wrong, as lots of uninformed commentators do - the litigation with Oracle is
not about the Java language!
Google has two options to get out of that situation with Oracle - bring the Android packages in to full conformance with Oracle's ones (thereby unifying the Java platform) or completely redesign their APIs so they don't infringe Oracle's copyright (breaking every Android app). Google has already decided on that front, and from Android N,
they're replacing their home-brewed APIs with OpenJDK APIs from Oracle.
As it happens, Google are also
introducing some language-level 8 features in Android N. They didn't need to move to OpenJDK or resolve their issue with Oracle to do that, though. The Java language itself is free.
So moving to Swift is not going to do them a blind bit of good when it comes to Oracle. In fact, it might even antagonise them even more - illegally using a non-standard derivative for almost a decade, and then switching right as they bring it in to conformity with the rest of the Java ecosystem.
I'm a python developer by trade but Swift seems to be the way forward for mobile apps at least. I wonder if the quant finance world will ever move in this direction... Is there a numpy equivalent for Swift?
Swift is still a very new language. As such, lots of libraries that you're used to from other languages don't exist yet, and if they do they won't be very mature and may be incomplete. In fact, the Swift language itself still has several holes.
That said, you're very welcome to write an equivalent package for Swift. If there's a library you really like, it's a great learning experience.
Once it becomes more stable, I expect Swift to see some significant adoption. Python is great because it's fast to write, but Python applications (since they are interpreted) may be highly unstable and significantly slower than a compiled application. People said it didn't matter on a practically-unlimited-power server; they were wrong. The ability of web applications to scale is becoming more and more important, and Swift gives you more bang per buck.
