> BTW, to be able to [expletive deleted] in XML data via the doc() function 
> like this --  
> where I send a query to a database and get a result back for  
> transformation -- is really useful.

Yes. I'm engaged in another project where we are doing exactly the same
thing with Tamino.

In some cases an alternative is to pipe the output of the query so it forms
the input of the stylesheet, e.g. via SAX.

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