An interactive theorem prover developed at the universities of Edinburgh and Stanford by Robin Milner and others. LCF (Logic for Computable Functions) introduced the general purpose programming language ML to allow users to write theorem proving tactics. Theorems in the system are propositions of a special "theorem" abstract datatype. The ML type system ensures that theorems are derived using only the inference rules given by the operations of the abstract type. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... For other meanings of Stanford, see Stanford (disambiguation). ... Robin Milner is a prominent British computer scientist. ... A programming language or computer language is a standardized communication technique for expressing instructions to a computer. ... ML is a general-purpose functional programming language developed by Robin Milner and others in the late 1970s at Edinburgh University, whose syntax is inspired by ISWIM. Historically, ML stands for metalanguage as it was conceived to develop proof tactics in the LCF theorem prover (the language of which ML... On computer science, a datatype (often simply type) is a name or label for a set of values and some operations which can be performed on that set of values. ...

Successors include the HOL and Isabelle theorem provers. The various HOL (which stands for Higher Order Logic) systems are a family of interactive theorem proving systems sharing similar logics and implementation strategies. ... The Isabelle theorem prover an interactive theorem proving framework, a successor of the HOL theorem prover. ...