General ⇒ Migration Advice

[ThomasJacobs]

I am a happy MikTeX/TeXnicCenter user beginning a new academic job where I will need to use a Mac instead of a PC as there is no support for 64 bit Windows versions at the institution I am joining. My alternatives are to pick an optimal Tex Distro/Editor for the Mac or else use VMWare to emulate Windows XP so I can continue to work with MikTeX/TexnicCenter.

1. Given that I will continue to work at home a good deal where I have multiple Vista 64 machines, would anyone care to comment on the lesser of the two evils here:

a. going back and forth on a near daily basis between MikTeX/TeXnicCenter on the windows side and a pair of apple friendly equivalents vs.

b. working within the VMWare environment on the Mac in order to keep my Windows choices

Is there an obvious answer here? I have no Mac or VMWare experience. If it seems better to go back and forth between Windows and Mac, can anyone comment on the closest Mac friendly equivalent to MikTeX/TeXnicCenter combination?

Thanks for any suggestions anyone might share.

Tom

[frabjous]

I confess I’m not a Mac user myself, but look into MacTeX to replace MikTeX. There are lots of editors to choose to replace TeXnicCenter; which one is best probably depends on which features of TXC you use the most, and what other features you want, but check out TexMaker, TexMakerX, TeXshop and TeXworks.

I don’t think it should be necessary to use a virtual machine, but if you do, think about going for a free, open source alternative such as VirtualBox instead of VMWare.

[josephwright]

I use both a Mac and Windows. I use MacTeX on the Mac and TeX Live on Windows (but used to use MiKTeX with no issues). I've gone with a cross-platform editor so I have the same tools both at work and at home. So I use TeXworks, but there is no reason not to use different editors on the different platforms.

[ThomasJacobs]

Thanks for the replies.

I have no choice on VMWare as it is specified by the institution.

If anyone has experience using TeXnicCenter via a virtual machine like VMWare, I would appreciate anything you could share.

Otherwise, I will investigate the Mac specific and cross platform suggestions in the previous posts.

Sincerely,

Tom