Isabelle/jEdit – A Prover IDE within the PIDE Framework

Abstract

PIDE is a general framework for document-oriented prover interaction and integration, based on a bilingual architecture that combines ML and Scala [2]. The overall aim is to connect LCF-style provers like Isabelle [5, §6] (or Coq [5,§4] or HOL [5, §1]) with sophisticated front-end technology on the JVM platform, overcoming command-line interaction at last.The present system description specifically covers Isabelle/jEdit as part of the official release of Isabelle2011-1 (October 2011). It is a concrete Prover IDE implementation based on Isabelle/PIDE library modules (implemented in Scala) on the one hand, and the well-known text editor framework of jEdit (implemented in Java) on the other hand.The interaction model of our Prover IDE follows the idea of continuous proof checking: the theory source text is annotated by semantic information by the prover as it becomes available incrementally. This works via an asynchronous protocol that neither blocks the editor nor stops the prover from exploiting parallelism on multi-core hardware. The jEdit GUI provides standard metaphors for augmented text editing (highlighting, squiggles, tooltips, hyperlinks etc.) that we have instrumented to render the formal content from the prover context. Further refinement of the jEdit display engine via suitable plugins and fonts approximates mathematical rendering in the text buffer, including symbols from the T E X repertoire, and sub-/superscripts. Isabelle/jEdit is presented here both as a usable interface for current Isabelle, and as a reference application to inspire further projects based on PIDE.

Formalizing Bachmair and Ganzinger's Ordered Resolution Prover

“…Its logic-based on classical simple type theory-balances expressiveness and automatability. We benefited from many features of the system, including codatatypes [5], Isabelle/jEdit [28], the Isar proof language [27], locales [4], and Sledgehammer [8]. It is perhaps indicative of the maturity of theorem proving technology that most of the issues we encountered were unrelated to Isabelle.…”

“…Below we provide implicit hyperlinks from theory names. A better way to study the theory files, however, is to open them in Isabelle/jEdit [28]. We used Isabelle version 2017, but the AFP is continuously updated to track Isabelle's evolution.…”

An Integrated Development Environment for the Prototype Verification System

“…• PVS Emacs, the standard front-end of PVS; • Isabelle/jEdit [18,19], the standard front-end of the Isabelle/HOL theorem proving system; • SublimeHOL 11 , a front-end to the HOL4 theorem prover;…”

Prototyping "Systems that Explain Themselves" for Education

“…So the standardised streams of Unix, stdin and stdout were the interface between ISAC's math-engine in SML and the ISAC front-end in Java. When the proof language Isar [49] superseded Isabelle's tactical language, also the more advanced userinterface Isabelle/jEdit [51] replaced the Emacs-interface. Also Isabelle/jEdit motivated a new kind of interface Isabelle/PIDE [52] as shown in the top area of Fig.2 on the next page.…”