From LCF to Isabelle/HOL

Interactive theorem provers have developed dramatically over the past four decades, from primitive beginnings to today's powerful systems. Here, we focus on Isabelle/HOL and its distinctive strengths. They include automatic proof search, borrowing techniques from the world of first order theorem proving, but also the automatic search for counterexamples. They include a highly readable structured language of proofs and a unique interactive development environment for editing live proof documents. Everything rests on the foundation conceived by Robin Milner for Edinburgh LCF: a proof kernel, using abstract types to ensure soundness and eliminate the need to store proofs. Compared with the research prototypes of the 1970s, Isabelle is a practical and versatile tool. It is used by system designers, mathematicians and many others

Isabelle/PIDE as Platform for Educational Tools

The Isabelle/PIDE platform addresses the question whether proof assistants of the LCF family are suitable as technological basis for educational tools. The traditionally strong logical foundations of systems like HOL, Coq, or Isabelle have so far been counter-balanced by somewhat inaccessible interaction via the TTY (or minor variations like the well-known Proof General / Emacs interface). Thus the fundamental question of math education tools with fully-formal background theories has often been answered negatively due to accidental weaknesses of existing proof engines. The idea of "PIDE" (which means "Prover IDE") is to integrate existing provers like Isabelle into a larger environment, that facilitates access by end-users and other tools. We use Scala to expose the proof engine in ML to the JVM world, where many user-interfaces, editor frameworks, and educational tools already exist. This shall ultimately lead to combined mathematical assistants, where the logical engine is in the background, without obstructing the view on applications of formal methods, formalized mathematics, and math education in particular.Comment: In Proceedings THedu'11, arXiv:1202.453

Recursive Definitions of Monadic Functions

Using standard domain-theoretic fixed-points, we present an approach for defining recursive functions that are formulated in monadic style. The method works both in the simple option monad and the state-exception monad of Isabelle/HOL's imperative programming extension, which results in a convenient definition principle for imperative programs, which were previously hard to define. For such monadic functions, the recursion equation can always be derived without preconditions, even if the function is partial. The construction is easy to automate, and convenient induction principles can be derived automatically.Comment: In Proceedings PAR 2010, arXiv:1012.455

Stateless HOL

We present a version of the HOL Light system that supports undoing definitions in such a way that this does not compromise the soundness of the logic. In our system the code that keeps track of the constants that have been defined thus far has been moved out of the kernel. This means that the kernel now is purely functional. The changes to the system are small. All existing HOL Light developments can be run by the stateless system with only minor changes. The basic principle behind the system is not to name constants by strings, but by pairs consisting of a string and a definition. This means that the data structures for the terms are all merged into one big graph. OCaml - the implementation language of the system - can use pointer equality to establish equality of data structures fast. This allows the system to run at acceptable speeds. Our system runs at about 85% of the speed of the stateful version of HOL Light.Comment: In Proceedings TYPES 2009, arXiv:1103.311

ProofPeer - A Cloud-based Interactive Theorem Proving System

ProofPeer strives to be a system for cloud-based interactive theorem proving. After illustrating why such a system is needed, the paper presents some of the design challenges that ProofPeer needs to meet to succeed. Contexts are presented as a solution to the problem of sharing proof state among the users of ProofPeer. Chronicles are introduced as a way to organize and version contexts

The Common HOL Platform

The Common HOL project aims to facilitate porting source code and proofs between members of the HOL family of theorem provers. At the heart of the project is the Common HOL Platform, which defines a standard HOL theory and API that aims to be compatible with all HOL systems. So far, HOL Light and hol90 have been adapted for conformance, and HOL Zero was originally developed to conform. In this paper we provide motivation for a platform, give an overview of the Common HOL Platform's theory and API components, and show how to adapt legacy systems. We also report on the platform's successful application in the hand-translation of a few thousand lines of source code from HOL Light to HOL Zero.Comment: In Proceedings PxTP 2015, arXiv:1507.0837