Implicit linebreaks in LaTeX equations

I wonder if there is any way to invert the way the LaTeX interprets linebrea开发者_开发百科ks in equations? E.g., I dont want to insert them explicitly like,

\begin{gather}
x = y \\
a = c
\end{gather}

, but implicitly like,

\begin{gather}
x = y
a = c
\end{gather}

Thanks.

This is against the intention of TeX’s author, who believed that math must be typeset by hand. I tried obeylines, but to no avail. I guess it’s possible by making new line active, but you should ask the cracks over at Stack Exchange, a branch of Stack Overflow for TeX and LaTeX.

The breqn package will automatically insert linebreaks in equations when the line is full. I don't know of anything that will do break as you ask. If it is a big deal you could use perltex to define a macro that would do it for you. I will try to mock one up as an example.