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<h1>The Isabelle System Distribution</h1>
<h2>Version information</h2>
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
<tt>NEWS</tt> file in the distribution for more details.
<h2>System requirements</h2>
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
give a very nice platform for Isabelle.
<p>
Furthermore, Isabelle needs the following software, which is not part
of 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.x
is <em>not</em> sufficient).
</ul>
<p>
The following ML system and platform combinations are known to work
very well:
<ul>
<li> Poly/ML 3.x on Linux and Sparc/Solaris.
<li> SML/NJ 110.x on any Unix platform (Linux, Suns, SGI etc.).
<li> SML/NJ 0.93 on Suns and SGIs. There seem to be several
problems with Linux and HP-UX, though.
</ul>
<p> <a href="http://www.polyml.org/">Poly/ML</a>, previously a
commercial product, is back in the free world. It is by far the best
compiler for running Isabelle, requiring the least memory and offering
the highest performance.
<p> <a
href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/what/smlnj/software.html">SML/NJ</a>
needs lots of store and disk space, but supports many more platforms.
The current official release is 110. Basically, we still support the
old 0.93 release, but do not recommend it.
<p> MLWorks is a commercial ML programming environment developed by <a
href="http://www.harlequin.com/">Harlequin</a> 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withdrawn after that company was taken over.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.
<h2>Installation</h2>
RPM packages are available for Isabelle/HOL and ZF on the Linux/x86
platform. The system may be easily built from scratch as well, taking
the traditional tar.gz distribution. See file <tt>INSTALL</tt> as
distributed with Isabelle for more information.
Further background information may be found in the <em>Isabelle System
Manual</em>, distributed with the sources (directory <tt>doc</tt>).
<h2>User interfaces</h2>
The distribution includes only a very primitive interface based on
ordinary terminal sessions. Advanced interfaces are available from
other sources:
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/proofgen/">Proof General</a> by
David Aspinall and others 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 <em>live proof script editing</em>. Proof
General has recently gained a rather large following of both beginning
and expert users of Isabelle.
<li>
<a href="http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/da/Isamode/">Isamode</a> by
David Aspinall is an older and simpler Emacs interface for Isabelle.
It runs under recent versions of XEmacs.
</ul>
<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> <a
href="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 exchange
information. To join, send a message to <a
href="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 fuer Informatik<br>
T. U. Muenchen<br>
D-80290 Muenchen<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 be
helpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiencies of
Isabelle and their consequences.
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