I started writing Swift within minutes of it being announced. I released my first Swift app on the store just about fifteen minutes after the RC of Xcode was released.
I did a lot of ObjC, but I've enjoyed using Swift. When I create frameworks and modules, they are Swift-only (no ObjC headers), because I like to leverage native Swift stuff, like enums and whatnot.
But I am writing app code. I think ObjC is a better systems language, so I don't think it's going anywhere, any time soon. It's a lot safer than "raw" C.
If you mean Objective-C code with minimal usage of C functions/structs/etc., then IMO Swift is actually the better systems language. Cf. the just-announced System library.
I love Swift, and it would be a great systems language, but it is important for system languages to have some kind of "bare metal" interfaces, with solid, predictable binary expression. Even C generally needs to be implemented in some kind of specialized embedded form for a lot of tools.
To me, Swift is a fairly high-level language, and I like that. I cut my teeth on the bare metal, and don't really miss working at that level.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd bet Metal is almost entirely C++ with a little Obj-C sprinkled on top for the API. And of course C++ is still a better systems language than Swift.
My point was that Swift is better than pure Obj-C for systems programming. Admittedly, that might be a poor comparison, since Obj-C was specifically built to be used alongside C as the systems language.
But yes, I think the ultimate goal is that Swift will be better than C/C++ for systems programming too. It still has a ways to go, and there are a lot of libraries that will need to be written, but I do think it's possible.
I did a lot of ObjC, but I've enjoyed using Swift. When I create frameworks and modules, they are Swift-only (no ObjC headers), because I like to leverage native Swift stuff, like enums and whatnot.
But I am writing app code. I think ObjC is a better systems language, so I don't think it's going anywhere, any time soon. It's a lot safer than "raw" C.