6 <title>The Isabelle System Distribution</title>
11 <h1>The Isabelle System Distribution</h1>
13 <h2>Version information</h2>
15 This is the internal repository version of Isabelle. See the
16 <tt>NEWS</tt> file in the distribution for details on user-relevant
20 <h2>System requirements</h2>
22 Isabelle requires a real Unix box with sufficient resources, say 64 MB
23 of free main memory and a decent CPU. Speaking by today's hardware
24 standards, any moderate Linux box should give a very nice platform for
29 Furthermore, Isabelle needs the following software, which is not part
32 <li>A full Standard ML Compiler (e.g. Poly/ML).
33 <li>The GNU bash shell (version 1.x or 2.x).
34 <li>Perl 5.x - the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister (Perl 4.x
35 is <em>not</em> sufficient).
40 The following ML system and platform combinations are known to work
43 <li>Poly/ML 4.x on Linux/x86, Solaris/Sparc, and PowerPC platforms.
44 <li>SML/NJ 110.x on any Unix platform (Linux, Suns, SGI etc.).
47 <p> <a href="http://www.polyml.org/">Poly/ML</a>, previously a
48 commercial product, is back in the free world. It is by far the best
49 compiler for running Isabelle, requiring the least memory and offering
50 the highest performance.
52 <p> <a href="http://smlnj.sourceforge.net/">SML/NJ</a> needs more
53 store and disk space, but on the other hand supports more platforms.
54 The current official release is 110.
59 Binary packages are available for Isabelle/HOL and ZF for several
60 platforms from the Isabelle web page. The system may be easily built
61 from scratch as well, taking the traditional tar.gz source
62 distribution. See file <tt>INSTALL</tt> as distributed with Isabelle
65 Further background information may be found in the <em>Isabelle System
66 Manual</em>, distributed with the sources (directory <tt>doc</tt>).
69 <h2>User interface</h2>
71 The canonical Isabelle user interface is <a
72 href="http://proofgeneral.inf.ed.ac.uk/">Proof General</a> by David Aspinall
73 and others. It is a generic (X)Emacs interface for proof assistants,
74 including Isabelle (both for the classic and Isar version). Proof
75 General is suitable for use by pacifists and Emacs militants
76 alike. Its most prominent feature is script management, providing a
77 metaphor of <em>live proof script editing</em>. Proof General has
78 recently gained a rather large following of both beginning and expert
83 Proof General is distributed together with the XEmacs
84 <a href="http://x-symbol.sourceforge.net">
85 X-Symbol package</a>, which provides a nice way to get proper
86 mathematical symbols displayed on screen.
89 <h2>Other sources of information</h2>
91 <h3>The Isabelle Page</h3>
93 The Isabelle home page may be accessed both from Cambridge and Munich:
98 href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/">http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/</a>
100 <li><a href="http://isabelle.in.tum.de">http://isabelle.in.tum.de</a>
105 <h3>Mailing list</h3>
107 The electronic mailing list <tt>isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk</tt>
108 provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems and exchange
109 information. To join, send a message to <a
110 href="mailto:isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk">isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk</a>.
113 <h3>Personal mail</h3>
115 <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/lcp/">Lawrence C Paulson</a><br>
116 Computer Laboratory<br>
117 University of Cambridge<br>
118 JJ Thomson Avenue<br>
119 Cambridge CB3 0FD<br>
122 E-mail: <A HREF="mailto:lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk">lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk</A><br>
123 Phone: +44-223-763500<br>
124 Fax: +44-223-334748<br>
130 <a href="http://www.in.tum.de/~nipkow/">Tobias Nipkow</a><br>
131 Institut für Informatik<br>
132 Technische Universität München<br>
137 E-mail: <A HREF="mailto:nipkow@in.tum.de">nipkow@in.tum.de</A><br>
138 Phone: +49-89-289-17302<br>
139 Fax: +49-89-289-17307<br>
144 Please report any problems you encounter. While we shall try to be
145 helpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiencies of
146 Isabelle and their consequences.