theory Intro

imports Main

begin

chapter {* Introduction *}

text {*

  The purpose of this Cookbook is to guide the reader through the

  first steps of Isabelle programming, and to provide recipes for

  solving common problems. The code provided in the Cookbook is 

  as far as possible checked against recent versions of Isabelle.

*}

section {* Intended Audience and Prior Knowledge *}

text {* 

  for writing theories and proofs. We also assume that readers are 

  familiar with the functional programming language ML, the language in 

  which most of Isabelle is implemented. If you are unfamiliar with either of

  these two subjects, you should first work through the Isabelle/HOL

  tutorial \cite{isa-tutorial} or Paulson's book on ML

  \cite{paulson-ml2}.

*}

section {* Existing Documentation *}

text {*

  The following documentation about Isabelle programming already exists (and is

  part of the distribution of Isabelle):

  \begin{description}

  \item[The Implementation Manual] describes Isabelle

  from a high-level perspective, documenting both the underlying

  concepts and some of the interfaces. 

  \item[The Isabelle Reference Manual] is an older document that used

  to be the main reference of Isabelle at a time when all proof scripts 

  were written on the ML level. Many parts of this manual are outdated 

  now, but some  parts, particularly the chapters on tactics, are still 

  useful.

  \item[The Isar Reference Manual] is also an older document that provides

  material about Isar and its implementation. Some material in it

  is still useful.

  \end{description}

  Then of course there is:

  \begin{description}

  \item[The code] is of course the ultimate reference for how

  things really work. Therefore you should not hesitate to look at the

  way things are actually implemented. More importantly, it is often

  good to look at code that does similar things as you want to do, to

  learn from other people's code.

  \end{description}

*}

end