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From: yxoc@cs.uni-sb.de (Ralf Treinen)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Latex bug???
Message-ID: <YXOC.91Feb21122411@fb14vax.cs.uni-sb.de>
Date: 21 Feb 91 11:24:11 GMT
References: <1991Feb20.145148.13403@polaris.utu.fi>
Sender: news@sbsvax.cs.uni-sb.de
Reply-To: treinen@cs.uni-sb.de
Organization: Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany
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In-reply-to: knuutila@tucos.utu.fi's message of 20 Feb 91 14:51:48 GMT

In article <1991Feb20.145148.13403@polaris.utu.fi> knuutila@tucos.utu.fi (Timo Knuutila) writes:

   Just encountered the following. Can someone please explain why the text
   produces `weird errors' with LaTeX.

   $$\begin{array}{l}
   [b_1]\\
   \ldots\\
   [b_m]
   \end{array}$$

   === LOG FILE ===
   ! Missing number, treated as zero.

The reason is that a specification of an additional vertical space in 
brackets may follow the \\ command (see page 153 of the LaTeXbook).
As Timo Knuutila said in his original posting, a {} between the \\ and
the offending brackets solves the problem.

Ralf.
--
 Ralf Treinen                         | email: treinen@cs.uni-sb.de          
 FB 14 - Informatik (Dept. of CS)     |
 Universitaet des Saarlandes          | phone: +49 681 302 2065
 W-6600 Saarbruecken , Germany        | fax:   +49 681 302 4421