There is definitely a lot of effort in this direction, seems very likely that a hybrid system could be very powerful.

Techniques to avoid aliasing. Difficult topic to do well though.

You're probably better off learning java at this point, its the future equivalent of COBOL for banking.

I use it all the time. Sometimes it can't handle complicated .doc files correctly but I use it mostly for spreadsheets, and its rare that I have any problems.