[texhax] Stretch Brackets Around $\halign$

[Donald Arseneau]

"Becker, Abraham (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [C]" <beckera at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov> writes:

> I'm trying to stretch some brackets around an \halign table which is in text mode, but having some difficulty, as the brackets are disappearing.
> 
> Could you please offer a suggestion on how I can improve this?
> 
> \[
> \left[
> {$\offinterlineskip\tabskip=0pt
> \halign{\quad$#$\quad &\strut\vrule\quad$#$\quad &\quad$#$\quad &\strut\vrule\quad$#$\quad &\quad$#$\quad\tabskip=0pt\cr

What is \[ ?  Are you doing this in LaTeX?  WHY!?!?!

You know that \left appears in math mode, and then $ wants to turn
*off* math mode?  You should probably be doing

\left[ \vcenter{\offinterlineskip\tabskip=0pt
 \halign ...


-- 
Donald Arseneau                          asnd at triumf.ca