[texhax] using align, array, eqnarry within tabular environment

[Barbara Beeton]

    Thanks very much for your response! (again). I did indeed miss your post earlier... I would not have deliberately ignored such useful advice as this totally solved my problem!

glad to hear it.

    So regarding your statement:
    the align environment works only at "outer" level
    (which can be directly within a minipage)

    So align can be used within minipage but not if the minipage is within tabular? I had thought minipage provided its own [outer-level-like] environment...

align *can* be used within minipage,
regardless of where the minipage appears.
you are correct that minipage provides
an "outer-level-like" environment.

    In the AMS doc though I never would have guessed aligned could be the solution (so thanks for being so kind as to even pointing out the exact page number) - its main usage is suggested to be for controlling the spacing around the contents, in my interpretation of that section, unless I am missing something. Is it a width limitation which causes align to be picky about which environment it's in?

the multi-line environments are of two kinds:
 - outer-level only, with the mechanism to
   apply display labels in appropriate locations;
 - subsidiary environments, meant to be nested
   as self-contained elements within other
   environments; these mostly end with "ed",
   but split can also be considered part of
   this group.
measurement *is* involved in processing both
kinds of environments, but it's the label
attachment mechanism that complicates the
outer-level environments and forces them to
be set to the full text width.

the documentation is scheduled to undergo
an update later this year.  it looks like
some clarification is in order for that
section; it's already on our list.  if you
have any specific, concrete suggestions,
please send them (off list) to
tech-support at ams.org.
							-- bb