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But...isn't Java a "safer systems language" in much the same way Swift is? So, it's a lot like Swift in that regard, in that Google is pushing it. And, there are other JVM languages, including some that are at least as nice as Swift. Kotlin looks really promising.

I'm not sure why Java should be excluded if we're talking about systems languages other than C/C++ that are safer.

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Java is not a systems programming language due to the lack of value types, com.misc.unsafe not being an official package and AOT compilation is not part of the standard toolchain (only third parties have JDKs with AOT compilers).

Also Google is pushing Android Java, not Java, with its partial support of standard Java features.

If you see their Google IO talks, they really mean Java and not other languages that happen to target the JVM.

Because it's an applications language, and not a systems language, Java uses garbage collection, which has unpredictable performance, while Swift doesn't.

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