Giuseppe and ConTeXt list members - Having figured out how to use \grabuntil (see my previous messages to this list), I've realized that it's really an inconvenient solution in some cases, because it's searching for a literal bit of text rather than an end to the appropriate grouping level. (Apparently there isn't a way to do the latter in TeX, given that AMSmath's \collect@body also searches for literal text.) This means that, if I write a "LaTeX compatibility function" that does things like define \end{myenvironment} to expand to \stopmyenvironment, my redefinition will not work on any environments using \grabuntil. This inconvenience happens to show up in t-amsl.tex's "align" and "gather" implementations, which is one place where I really need that compatibility function. However, it turns out that there's a simple way to rewrite the implementation so to avoid needing \grabuntil. Mostly, this works on the fact that the definition of Plain TeX's \eqalign function can be split apart into a before and after part, as follows: \def\starteqalign{\null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$&$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopeqalign{\crcr\egroup\egroup\,} (This, aside from the \bgroup's and \egroup's, is copied directly from Appendix B of The TeXbook.) Thus, we could expand the instances of \eqalign in the \startalign and \startgather definitions, shuffle things around appropriately, and obtain the following: \def\startalign{\startformula \let\\\cr \starteqalign} \def\stopalign{\crcr\stopeqalign\stopformula} \def\startgather{\startformula \def\\{\cr&}% \starteqalign&} \def\stopgather{\crcr\stopeqalign\stopformula} This exactly duplicates the existing functionality in the t-amsl.tex package. However, that functionality could be improved to be a better match to what's provided in amsmath.tex; in particular, align should accept multiple columns of equations, and gather should center its lines. Thus, I propose that the following redefinitions be included in t-amsl: \def\startalign{\startformula \let\\\cr \null\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \everycr={}\tabskip=4pt plus1fil \halign to \displaywidth\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$% \tabskip=0pt &$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil% \tabskip=4pt plus1fil &&\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$% \tabskip=0pt &$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil% \tabskip=4pt plus1fil \crcr} \def\stopalign{\crcr\crcr\egroup\egroup\stopformula} \def\startgather{\startformula \let\\\cr \null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopgather{\crcr\crcr\egroup\egroup\,\stopformula} Also, a similar method can be used to replicate the split environment (which, unlike the above, should go inside an explicit \startformula and \stopformula pair). I propose the following definition be added as well: \def\startsplit{% \let\\\cr \null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$&$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopsplit{\crcr\egroup\egroup\,} This still doesn't address the fact that the lines in the align and gather environments are not given individual equation numbers as they should be, but I think that is a project for another day. - Brooks P.S. A question: is it intentional that the array environment in t-amsl produces notably different spacing than LaTeX's array environment?