Example Proof General instance for Isabelle

Written by David Aspinall.

Status:	demonstration, only works for obsolete Isabelle versions

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		"Isabelle Proof General in 30 setqs"

This is a whittled down version of Isabelle Proof General, supplied as
an (almost) minimal demonstration of how to instantiate Proof General
to a particular proof assistant.  You can use this as a template to
get support for a new assistant going. (I did for HOL Proof General).

This mode uses the unadulterated terminal interface of Isabelle, to
demonstrate that hacking the proof assistant is not necessary to get
basic features working.

And it really works!  You you get a toolbar, menus, short-cut keys,
script management for multiple files, a function menu, ability to
run proof assistant remotely, etc, etc.

To try it out, set in the shell PROOFGENERAL_ASSISTANTS=demoisa
before invoking Emacs.  (Of course, you need Isabelle installed).

What's missing? 

 1. A few handy commands (e.g. proof-find-theorems-command)
 2. Syntax settings and highlighting for proof scripts
 3. Indentation for proof scripts
 4. Special markup characters in output for robustness 
 5. True script management for multiple files (automatic mode is used)
 6. Proof by pointing

How easy is it to add all that?

 1. Trivial.  2. A table specifying syntax codes for characters
 (strings, brackets, etc) and some regexps; depends on complexity
 of syntax.  3. A bit of elisp to scan script; depends on
 complexity of syntax.  4. Needs hacking in the proof assistant:
 how hard is to hack your assistant to do this?  5. Depends on file
 management mechanism in the prover, may need hacking there to send
 messages. But automatic multiple files may be all you need anyway.
 6. Non trivial (but worth a go).

See demoisa.el and demoisa-easy.el for more details.



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$Id$

