[texhax] Difference between \centering and \begin{centering}...

[Daniel Freedman]

Hi,

I'm trying to understand the difference between the use of:

  \centering
  
and the use of 

  \begin{centering}
  ...
  \end{centering}
  
I'm well aware of the difference between either of these and the use
of the 'center' environment (this establishing a separate environment,
which adds some more vertical 'glue' space, as I understand it).

However, I thought the first two above should be identical.  Indeed,
when I use them to center figures, they seem to work identically.
However, it's interesting that the latter does NOT seem to work to
center 'tabular' enrivonments, while the former does...

Can someone educate me, please?  :)

Thanks,
Daniel

-- 
Daniel Freedman <{freedman at physics | dfreedman at cs}.cornell.edu>
  Post-Doc, Distributed Systems, Computer Science, Cornell University