The Isabelle System Distribution

Version information

This is the internal repository version of Isabelle. The current line of development introduces many new features, while attempting to keep incompatibilities over Isabelle98-X at a minimum. See the NEWS file in the distribution for more details.

System requirements

Isabelle requires a real Unix box with sufficient resources. Fun starts at about 32-64 MB of free main memory (somewhat depending on your ML system), with several tens of MB disk space and a decent CPU. Speaking by today's hardware standards, any moderate Linux box should make a nice platform for Isabelle.

Furthermore, Isabelle needs the following software, which is not part of the distribution:

A full Standard ML Compiler (e.g. Poly/ML).
The GNU bash shell (version 1.x or 2.x).
Perl 5.x - the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister (Perl 4.x is not sufficient).

The following ML system and platform combinations are known to work very well:

Poly/ML 3.x on Linux and Suns.
SML/NJ 110.x on any Unix platform (e.g. Linux, Suns).
SML/NJ 0.93 on Suns and SGIs. There seem to be several problems with Linux and HP-UX, though.

Poly/ML, previously a commercial product, is back in the public domain. It is the best compiler for running Isabelle, requiring the least memory and offering the fastest performance.

SML/NJ needs lots of store and disk space, but it is free. The current official release is 110 (there is an RPM archive available for Linux/x86). We still support the old 0.93 release, but do not recommend it.

MLWorks is a commercial ML programming environment developed by Harlequin and was unfortunately withdrawn after that company was taken over. Isabelle on MLWorks 2.0 works well. It is about 20% faster than on SML/NJ while using slightly less memory and disk space. A few minor features (e.g. ML top-level pretty printing) are not supported, though.

Installation

Binary rpm packages are available for Isabelle/HOL and ZF on the Linux/x86 platform. Alternatively, the system may be built from scratch as described in file INSTALL of the Isabelle sources. Further background information may be found in the Isabelle System Manual, distributed with the sources (directory doc).

User interfaces

The distribution includes only a very primitive interface based on ordinary terminal sessions. Advanced interfaces are available from other sources:

Isamode by David Aspinall is a more elaborate interface for Isabelle. It runs under recent versions of XEmacs and is useful to both novices and experts.
Proof General is a generic Emacs interface for proof assistants, including Isabelle (both for the classic and Isar version). Proof General is suitable for use by pacifists and Emacs militants alike. Its most prominent feature is script management, providing a metaphor of live proof script editing.

Other sources of information

Mailing list

The electronic mailing list isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems and exchange information. To join, send a message to isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk.

Personal mail

Lawrence C Paulson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
Pembroke Street
Cambridge CB2 3QG
England

E-mail: lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk
Phone: +44-223-334600
Fax: +44-223-334748

Tobias Nipkow
Institut fuer Informatik
T. U. Muenchen
D-80290 Muenchen
Germany

E-mail: nipkow@in.tum.de
Phone: +49-89-289-22690
Fax: +49-89-289-28183

Please report any problems you encounter. While we shall try to be helpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiencies of Isabelle and their consequences.