"Matter" to what end? That is, if you do not have a specific goal in mind when learning a language, then of course it doesn't matter. On the other hand, if your ultimate goal is to learn a myriad of languages so that you can jump around fields, then of course it matters, as you will likely have difficulty learning advanced concepts without understanding the basic ones. (Just as you would likely not dive into calculus without understanding algebra.)
> We don’t have to make programming about mathematics.
I also don't understand the article's interest in decoupling programming from math; that seems like trying to have physics without math or philosophy without logic. The power of the field is founded on math; you can't just sidestep around it and gain its power at the same time.
>I also don't understand the article's interest in decoupling programming from math
It's an unfortunate side effect of America's long acceptance of anti-intellectualism. And people like this perpetuate it by coddling Americans who were somehow allowed to get through high school without even a basic understanding of the fundamentals of math. I am also a victim of this defeatist way of thinking, and have worked hard to appreciate math and learn it on my own to undo the trauma instilled in me by math teachers who simply taught formulas for us to remember to pass tests that we immediately cleared from our memory afterward.
I had some math teachers who either did not understand math very well themselves and just regurgitated text books, or just didn't know how to teach it well (which, to be fair, can be challenging).
But the article states near the end:
> Conversational programmers struggle to find resources that help them learn because so many of them require a focus on the logic and mathematics, but we are developing approaches to help conversational programmers learn without the math. We might be able to teach a lot more people about programming if we don’t expect students to know mathematics first
I'm just not sure that's a great (or entirely workable) idea. Embrace the math!
That said, I don't think one has to learn the math first; you can learn math and programming at the same time. In fact, it is perhaps easier to learn math when you have a concrete programming context to apply it to. I taught myself the basics of algebra by teaching myself BASIC in elementary school, years before I had a clue what "algebra" was. By the time I was taking algebra classes, it was a breeze. (Calculus on the other hand....)
> We don’t have to make programming about mathematics.
I also don't understand the article's interest in decoupling programming from math; that seems like trying to have physics without math or philosophy without logic. The power of the field is founded on math; you can't just sidestep around it and gain its power at the same time.