```Volker Schubert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>1) The array/tabular environments are intended for tabulars with
>constant baseline-distance. The baselineskip-mechanism of TeX is
>turned off (\lineskip=0pt). LaTeX works with struts instead. The
>problem here is that there is no minimal vertical space between the lines.
>But in some situations it would be desirable, if vertical space
>would be inserted automatically.

tabls.sty... "one of these days" I will make an array-package-compatible
version.  If you don't have vertical lines it is easy -- just set \lineskip
back again!  That's booktabs.sty.

Yes, this is one of the many features of table formatting that must be
put in LaTex3.

>2) Sometimes it happens that one wants some mathematical material
>to be ``displayed'', but this material has to be aligned
>horizontally. If one wants \displaystyle, one has to switch to
>\displaystyle in every column by hand (or define a new columntype).

I think a new (user defined) column type *is* the answer.

>The easiest way would be, if there was an argument-switch in the
>alignment-environment where one could turn on ``\displaymode in
>every column''.

\everymath{\displaystyle}.  But it's not great.