Apple shifts from Objective C to Swift

Interesting argument but I think you miss the most important subtext of my position -- that the NIH approach robs us of the power of collaboration and the power of standards. Whether or not the companies making the new language go through the motions of positioning them as standards, people typically react as if they're proprietary islands -- 'cause they are.

If Apple were really interested in improving the state of the art, they'd contribute great ideas and code to improve an existing language or create a new one in collaboration with many others. But "hey here's our new language" is the same as "you must buy your software from our App Store TM". It's part of locking things down and limiting progress.