RE: What effect does DOCTYPE have

> Does the XSLT processor try to read the DTD? 

No, but the XML parser does.

> Is there anyway to avoid this? 

Only by removing the DOCTYPE declaration, or redirecting the reference to a
dummy DTD.

I essentially want the same output, including 
> the DOCTYPE 
> info, but with changes to the processing instructions.

Unfortunately the XML parser doesn't tell the XSLT processor what DOCTYPE
declaration was present, so the XSLT processor can't reproduce it in the
output.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/