<html><!-- $Id$ --><head><title>The Isabelle System Distribution</title></head><body><h1>The Isabelle System Distribution</h1><h2>Version information</h2>This is the internal repository version of Isabelle. See the<tt>NEWS</tt> file in the distribution for details on user-relevantchanges.<h2>System requirements</h2>Isabelle requires a real Unix box with sufficient resources, say 64 MBof free main memory and a decent CPU. Speaking by today's hardwarestandards, any moderate Linux box should give a very nice platform forIsabelle.<p>Furthermore, Isabelle needs the following software, which is not partof the distribution:<ul><li>A full Standard ML Compiler (e.g. Poly/ML).<li>The GNU bash shell (version 1.x or 2.x).<li>Perl 5.x - the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister (Perl 4.xis <em>not</em> sufficient).</ul><p>The following ML system and platform combinations are known to workvery well:<ul><li>Poly/ML 4.x and 3.x on Linux/x86, Solaris/Sparc, and PowerPC platforms.<li>SML/NJ 110.x on any Unix platform (Linux, Suns, SGI etc.).</ul><p> <a href="http://www.polyml.org/">Poly/ML</a>, previously acommercial product, is back in the free world. It is by far the bestcompiler for running Isabelle, requiring the least memory and offeringthe highest performance.<p> <a href="http://smlnj.sourceforge.net/">SML/NJ</a> needs morestore and disk space, but on the other hand supports more platforms.The current official release is 110.<p> MLWorks used to be a commercial ML programming environmentdeveloped by <a href="http://www.harlequin.com/">Harlequin</a> and wasunfortunately withdrawn after that company was taken over. Isabelleon MLWorks 2.0 works reasonably well.<h2>Installation</h2>Binary packages are available for Isabelle/HOL and ZF for severalplatforms from the Isabelle web page. The system may be easily builtfrom scratch as well, taking the traditional tar.gz sourcedistribution. See file <tt>INSTALL</tt> as distributed with Isabellefor more information.Further background information may be found in the <em>Isabelle SystemManual</em>, distributed with the sources (directory <tt>doc</tt>).<h2>User interface</h2>The canonical Isabelle user interface is <ahref="http://proofgeneral.inf.ed.ac.uk/">Proof General</a> by David Aspinalland others. It is a generic (X)Emacs interface for proof assistants,including Isabelle (both for the classic and Isar version). ProofGeneral is suitable for use by pacifists and Emacs militantsalike. Its most prominent feature is script management, providing ametaphor of <em>live proof script editing</em>. Proof General hasrecently gained a rather large following of both beginning and expertusers of Isabelle.<p>Proof General is distributed together with the XEmacs<a href="http://x-symbol.sourceforge.net">X-Symbol package</a>, which provides a nice way to get propermathematical symbols displayed on screen.<h2>Other sources of information</h2><h3>The Isabelle Page</h3>The Isabelle home page may be accessed both from Cambridge and Munich:<ul><li><ahref="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/">http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/</a><li><a href="http://isabelle.in.tum.de">http://isabelle.in.tum.de</a></ul><h3>Mailing list</h3>The electronic mailing list <tt>isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk</tt>provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems and exchangeinformation. To join, send a message to <ahref="mailto:isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk">isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk</a>.<h3>Personal mail</h3><a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/lcp/">Lawrence C Paulson</a><br>Computer Laboratory<br>University of Cambridge<br>Pembroke Street<br>Cambridge CB2 3QG<br>England<br><br>E-mail: <A HREF="mailto:lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk">lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk</A><br>Phone: +44-223-334600<br>Fax: +44-223-334748<br><p>or<p><a href="http://www.in.tum.de/~nipkow/">Tobias Nipkow</a><br>Institut f�r Informatik<br>T. U. M�nchen<br>D-80290 M�nchen<br>Germany<br><br>E-mail: <A HREF="mailto:nipkow@in.tum.de">nipkow@in.tum.de</A><br>Phone: +49-89-289-22690<br>Fax: +49-89-289-28183<br><p><hr>Please report any problems you encounter. While we shall try to behelpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiencies ofIsabelle and their consequences.<hr></body></html>