>There are already several programs going in this direction: a lot of Canadian universities, notably Waterloo, have Software Engineering programs...
Waterloo has Software Engineering, but its not really aimed in the direction he is suggesting. Software engineering is basically Computer Science (math dept) and Computer Engineering (engineering dept) combined. Really, I do mean combined, because it approaches double the work of either program, or it did a few years ago.
What Waterloo has done to address the issues Joel presents is to create a new Bachelor of Computer Science (not to be confused with a BS, it is a BCS). This program is designed to reduce some of the math requirements in later years and allow individuals to have more upper year CS courses. They have not eliminated any of the math or theory out of the curriculum in the first few years.
Waterloo has not had a problem teaching Java to first year students, mainly because the focus is not put on the language. They don't really have any courses designed to just teach you a language, the goal is to teach programming concepts. Early on OOP, data structures, and so on are taught, then things move into algorithms.
Waterloo has Software Engineering, but its not really aimed in the direction he is suggesting. Software engineering is basically Computer Science (math dept) and Computer Engineering (engineering dept) combined. Really, I do mean combined, because it approaches double the work of either program, or it did a few years ago.
What Waterloo has done to address the issues Joel presents is to create a new Bachelor of Computer Science (not to be confused with a BS, it is a BCS). This program is designed to reduce some of the math requirements in later years and allow individuals to have more upper year CS courses. They have not eliminated any of the math or theory out of the curriculum in the first few years.
Waterloo has not had a problem teaching Java to first year students, mainly because the focus is not put on the language. They don't really have any courses designed to just teach you a language, the goal is to teach programming concepts. Early on OOP, data structures, and so on are taught, then things move into algorithms.