For two years, we have been teaching a quarter-long compiler construction course where students implement an interpreter for a variant of the XML query language XQuery. Our goal is to motivate students' interest in the course by exposing them to an interesting and powerful new language which they see as relevant to potential future experiences.In this paper, we first explain the workings of the course itself, and then describe some pedagogically interesting variants of the XQuery language. We close with a discussion of challenges faced and conclusions.

For two years, we have been teaching a quarter-long compiler construction course where students implement an interpreter for a variant of the XML query language XQuery. Our goal is to motivate students' interest in the course by exposing them to an interesting and powerful new language which they see as relevant to potential future experiences.In this paper, we first explain the workings of the course itself, and then describe some pedagogically interesting variants of the XQuery language. We close with a discussion of challenges faced and conclusions.