The Isabelle System Distribution
Version information
This is Isabelle-94 revision 8 as of May
1997. Basically, it should be backwards compatible to earlier
Isabelle-94 releases. Older versions (like Isabelle-93) are quite
different, though. See also the NEWS file in the distribution
for a more detailed list of new features and changes.
System requirements
Isabelle requires a real Unix box with sufficient resources. Fun
starts at about 32MB of memory (somewhat depending on your ML system),
several tens of MB disk space and with a relatively fast CPU.
Furthermore, it needs the following software, which is not part of the
distribution:
- A full Standard ML Compiler (e.g. Poly/ML or SML of New Jersey).
- The GNU bash shell (version 1.x or 2.x).
- Perl 5.x - the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.
The ML system and GNU bash are absolutely essential. Perl is optional
for core functionality, but still highly recommended.
The following ML system and platform combinations are known to work
quite well:
- Poly/ML versions 2.x and 3.1 on Suns.
- SML/NJ 0.93 on Suns and SGIs. There seem to be several
problems with Linux and HP-UX.
- SML/NJ 1.07 on Suns, Linux, etc.
- SML/NJ 1.09.27 on Suns, Linux, etc.
Poly/ML is a
commercial product and costs money, but it is stable and efficient. It
requires relatively little memory (starting at about 16MB) and disk
space (about 40MB for all distributed object logics).
SML/NJ needs lots of store and disk space, but it is free.
The last official release is 0.93. Recent working versions may be
better suited, under normal circumstances. Beware of the many
incompatibilities among SML/NJ versions! From the 1.09.x family, we
now only support 1.09.27, or later. An unofficial pre-built binary
distribution of SML/NJ 1.09.27 for Linux is also available.
Installation
See file INSTALL in the Isabelle sources on how to build the
system. Further background information may be found in the
Isabelle System Manual, distributed as dvi with the
sources.
Other sources of information
Mailing list
The electronic mailing list isabelle-users@cl.cam.ac.uk
provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems and exchange
information. To join, send a message to
isabelle-users-request@cl.cam.ac.uk.
Personal mail
Lawrence C Paulson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
Pembroke Street
Cambridge CB2 3QG
England
E-mail: lcp@cl.cam.ac.uk
Phone: +44-223-334600
Fax: +44-223-334748
or
Tobias Nipkow
Institut fuer Informatik
T. U. Muenchen
D-80290 Muenchen
Germany
E-mail: nipkow@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
Phone: +49-89-289-22690
Fax: +49-89-289-28183
Please report any problems you encounter. While we shall try to be
helpful, we can accept no responsibility for the deficiences of
Isabelle and their consequences.