How to work with LaTeX such that files are interchangeable linux/unix/windows?

Question

I am mosly using pdflatex. One recurring problem is that the encoding used on Linux (my system), UTF8, is different from on Windows, I use

\inputencoding{utf8}

on Windows one must use (well, to write spanish ...)

\inputencoding{latin1}

and files must be converted when moved between systems. Is there a way to organize the workflow such that the same input file can be used on both systems? without conversion and without any editing? (possibly invoking change to XelaTeX/LuaTeX, if necessary)

Answer 1

Use a cross-platform Unicode editor like TeXworks/TeXmaker/TeXstudio where you set in the input encoding independent of the OS encoding.

For example TeXmaker recognises and suggests the recommended font encoding written by a third person to retain the consistency.

Its always better to write \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} or \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} to reveal your input encoding for third person so that he opens the document in the same encoding when using pdflatex.

On Windows, with the help of cross-platform Unicode editors one can use latin1, utf8 or even utf8x encoding and share it in Linux without any trouble.