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9 <title>The Isabelle System Distribution</title>
14 <h1>The Isabelle System Distribution</h1>
16 <h2>Version information</h2>
18 <p>This is the internal repository version of Isabelle. See the
19 <tt>NEWS</tt> file in the distribution for details on user-relevant
22 <h2>System requirements</h2>
24 <p>Isabelle requires a regular Unix platform (e.g. GNU Linux) with the
25 following additional software:</p>
28 <li>A full Standard ML Compiler (e.g. Poly/ML 4.1.x, SML/NJ 110.x).</li>
29 <li>The GNU bash shell (version 2.x).</li>
30 <li>Perl (version 5.x).</li>
31 <li>XEmacs (version 21.4.x) -- for the ProofGeneral interface.</li>
32 <li>A complete LaTeX installation (e.g. teTeX 1.0) -- for document preparation.</li>
37 <p>Binary packages are available for Isabelle/HOL and ZF for several
38 platforms from the Isabelle web page. The system may be easily built
39 from scratch as well, taking the traditional tar.gz source
40 distribution. See file <tt>INSTALL</tt> as distributed with Isabelle
41 for more information.</p>
43 <p>Further background information may be found in the <em>Isabelle System
44 Manual</em>, distributed with the sources (directory <tt>doc</tt>).</p>
46 <h2>User interface</h2>
48 <p>The canonical Isabelle user interface is <a
49 href="http://proofgeneral.inf.ed.ac.uk/">Proof General</a> by David Aspinall
50 and others. It is a generic (X)Emacs interface for proof assistants,
51 including Isabelle (both for the classic and Isar version). Proof
52 General is suitable for use by pacifists and Emacs militants
53 alike. Its most prominent feature is script management, providing a
54 metaphor of <em>live proof script editing</em>. Proof General has
55 recently gained a rather large following of both beginning and expert
56 users of Isabelle.</p>
58 <p>Proof General is distributed together with the XEmacs
59 <a href="http://x-symbol.sourceforge.net">
60 X-Symbol package</a>, which provides a nice way to get proper
61 mathematical symbols displayed on screen.</p>
63 <h2>Other sources of information</h2>
65 <h3>The Isabelle Page</h3>
67 <p>The Isabelle home page may be accessed both from Cambridge and Munich:</p>
70 <li><a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/">http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/</a></li>
71 <li><a href="http://isabelle.in.tum.de">http://isabelle.in.tum.de</a></li>
77 <p>The electronic mailing list <tt>isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk</tt>
78 provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems and exchange
79 information. To join, send a message to <a
80 href="mailto:isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk">isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk</a>.</p>
83 <h3>Personal mail</h3>
85 <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/lcp/">Lawrence C Paulson</a><br>
86 Computer Laboratory<br>
87 University of Cambridge<br>
92 E-mail: <a href="mailto:lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk">lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk</a><br>
93 Phone: +44-223-763500<br>
94 Fax: +44-223-334748<br>
100 <a href="http://www.in.tum.de/~nipkow/">Tobias Nipkow</a><br>
101 Institut für Informatik<br>
102 Technische Universität München<br>
107 E-mail: <a href="mailto:nipkow@in.tum.de">nipkow@in.tum.de</a><br>
108 Phone: +49-89-289-17302<br>
109 Fax: +49-89-289-17307<br>
114 Please report any problems you encounter. While we shall try to be
115 helpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiencies of
116 Isabelle and their consequences.