What is Isabelle?
Isabelle is a generic proof assistant. It allows mathematical formulas to be expressed in a formal language and provides tools for proving those formulas in a logical calculus. Isabelle is developed at University of Cambridge (Larry Paulson), Technische Universität München (Tobias Nipkow) and Université Paris-Sud (Makarius Wenzel). See the Isabelle overview for a brief introduction.
Now available: Isabelle2013
Some highlights:
- Improvements of Isabelle/Scala and Isabelle/jEdit Prover IDE.
- Advanced build tool based on Isabelle/Scala.
- Updated manuals: isar-ref, implementation, system.
- Pure: improved support for block-structured specification contexts.
- HOL tool enhancements: Sledgehammer, Lifting, Quickcheck.
- HOL library enhancements: HOL-Library, HOL-Probability, HOL-Cardinals.
- HOL: New BNF-based (co)datatype package.
- Improved performance thanks to Poly/ML 5.5.0.
See also the cumulative NEWS.
Distribution & Support
Isabelle is distributed for free under the BSD license. It includes source and binary packages and documentation, see the detailed installation instructions. A vast collection of Isabelle examples and applications is available from the Archive of Formal Proofs.
Support is available by ample documentation, the Isabelle community Wiki, and the following mailing lists:
- {isabelle-users} AT [cl.cam.ac.uk] provides a forum for Isabelle users to discuss problems, exchange information, and make announcements. Users of official Isabelle releases should subscribe or see the archive (also available via Google groups and Narkive).
- {isabelle-dev} AT [in.tum.de] covers the Isabelle development process, including intermediate repository versions, and administrative issues concerning the website or testing infrastructure. Early adopters of repository versions should subscribe or see the archive (also available at mail-archive.com or gmane.org).