Theorem Provers vs Specification Languages: How to Pick Between Lean, TLA+, P and More
burny_tech · x · 2026-10-30
Hillel Wayne clarifies two families of formal tools. Isabelle, Lean, and Rocq (formerly Coq) are theorem provers for proving math and formal verification—either by translating your program in (risking translation errors) or via built-in languages that extract binaries. Fizzbee, TLA+, Spin, Alloy, Quint, and P are specification languages for checking high-level blueprints, after which matching code to spec remains a hard problem. They differ in expressiveness: P, Spin, and Fizzbee are codelike—P resembles interacting state machines, Spin looks like C with CSP, Fizzbee like a Python dialect—making them easier to adopt.
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