[XeTeX] consternation and confusion - xelatex is generating a blank page in the middle of my document

[Michiel Kamermans]

Hi Lars,
> I think the problem is caused by the center environment within which you
> have set the longtable. Longtable usually sets centred by default, so you do
> not need this environment in any case. If you comment out the \begin{center}
> and \end{center} calls then the document compiles without the extra page.
> The longtable package provides two lengths, \LTleft and \LTright, which you
> can use to adjust the horizontal position of the table.
>   
Aha! That works here too. Although what I see is that the tables stay 
left aligned unless they get too big (which is nice, because that's kind 
of what I need anyway =)

But this is quite interesting... would this mean that the center 
enviroment somehow inserts invisible vertical spacing? Or does it make 
tex switch spacing algorithms to one that cannot detect it's generating 
an empty page?

- Mike