I was referring to the second part of his post. Also this class is not introduction to programming it is upper division and considered one of tougher classes in terms of workload.
The assignments aren't trivial. Take look at them:
I actually think that would mostly confuse a lot of new undergrads. Fundamentals first, variety later (but it's definitely important!)
I agree. The intro class should use whatever IDE & config will most enable them to teach the fundamentals.
Understanding the details of packages and javac and other things should be left for a later class which can put them in the context of other languages.
"Universities should offer a class on comparative programming languages and language tooling." is much different than "Intro-to-programming classes should not have a strongly-recommended IDE"