Notes on the Isabelle/jEdit Prover IDE
- The original jEdit look-and-feel is generally preserved, although
some default properties have been changed to accommodate Isabelle
(e.g. the text area font).
- Formal Isabelle/Isar text is checked asynchronously while editing.
The user is in full command of the editor, and the prover refrains
from locking portions of the buffer etc.
- Prover feedback works via tooltips, syntax highlighting, colors,
boxes etc. based on semantic markup provided by Isabelle in the
background.
- Using the mouse together with the modifier key C
(CONTROL on Linux or Windows,
COMMAND on Mac OS) exposes additional information.
- Dockable panels (e.g. Output) are managed as independent
windows by jEdit, which also allows multiple instances.
Limitations and workrounds (January 2011)
- No way to start/stop prover or switch to a different logic.
Workaround: Change options and restart editor.
- Multiple theory buffers cannot depend on each other, imports are
resolved via the file-system.
Workaround: Save/reload files manually.
- No reclaiming of old/unused document versions in prover or
editor.
Workaround: Avoid large files; restart after a few hours of use.
- Incremental reparsing sometimes produces unexpected command
spans.
Workaround: Cut/paste larger parts or reload buffer.
- Command execution sometimes gets stuck (purple background).
Workaround: Force reparsing as above.
- Odd behavior of some diagnostic commands, notably those
starting external processes asynchronously
(e.g. thy_deps, sledgehammer).
Workaround: Avoid such commands.
- No support for non-local markup, e.g. commands reporting on
previous commands (proof end on proof head), or markup produced by
loading external files.
- General lack of various conveniences known from Proof
General.