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It really does matter at least according to this paper [1]. However I think the paper missed one major sin of not having a GC for introductory programming language. D actually avoids most of these sins and it is GC by default.

[1] Seven Deadly Sins of Introductory Programming Language Design:

https://users.monash.edu/~damian/papers/PDF/SevenDeadlySins....

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Not sure I agree. GC is essential in industry (well, I'd argue that! Ignoring embedded anyway) but I think the programmer has to understand the real cost, and that means allocating and de-allocating, and if that is hidden by the GC then they're not learning that.

This is something much, much more easily learned with your second, or maybe even third programming language rather than with your first.

True, but you don't need to get them to write C (or similar) in order for them to get to that point later on, once they can write basic stuff. In that regard, D is excellent because it does allow you to write code without the GC once you've mastered the basics, so it may be a (very) advanced part of a course to optimize some algorithm by manually managing memory, and seeing how much difference it makes.

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