On 2014-02-15 19:46, vpappasmet wrote:
>
> Mmm…i like the fact that you seem quite sure for what you say. But,
> just as an example, what could be the worst thing that could happen to
> me using word via wine?
Anything, ranging from nothing to total destruction 
Nobody can warranty you that Word will work perfectly without crashes or
problems. The wine people try their best to provide all the Windows
function calls that Windows software will use (even hidden, non
published functions!). Actually, they don’t cover all cases, as proven
by the fact that some applications do not even start.
Nobody can know if Office, maybe a year from now, in the middle of your
writeup, will use a function say when you use a paragraph format that
nobody tried before when using wine, that will call some function that
Wine does not provide, or that does not work right. Crash! Or failure.
Or misbehavior.
You can not know if something like this will happen or not. People just
try an application under wine, and say: “It works!” But they have not
tested absolutely all functionality.
So… work, yes. You can use Word, yes. Robustness… certainly not.
> ps. I am thinking of starting LaTeX, although I am afraid this might
> take some time.
Absolutely, it does take a lot of time. Or not, depending how fast you
adapt to it. People that use it talk wonders of it.
IMO, the most salient feature about it is that it provides absolutely
consistent output on the entire book. All paragraphs are formatted
accordingly to how you define them, for instance, on the entire book.
You don’t need to care about formatting trivia. It is not WYSIWYG.
Like applying a change and see all instances on the document using that
thing changing together, consistently. Not having to review the entire
document clicking and changing all over the place. Yes, Word has styles,
but this is… well, other world.
It also works in Windows. I know people on the academic world using it,
on Windows, very proficiently. I have see the result, with very complex
mathematical formulae, absolutely perfect and consistent.
I don’t use it, though. Complicated to learn
On the other hand, there is LyX. It is not latex, but it does use some
latex things, and shares some features. You can use a format for a book,
and simply let LyX do the formatting. The result is simply perfect. On
the other hand, it is not easy to customize. You can also use latex
inserts in it.
Have a look at it, there are examples that allow you to see what you can
do with it. It is not latex, but it shares enough to guess what Latex
would do.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
