From NLTK

Once you have Installation installed Python and NLTK, you can get started as follows.

Contents 1 Running Python 2 Hello World! 3 Running NLTK's Graphical Demonstrations 4 Other Demonstrations 5 Online Documentation

Running Python

The simplest way to run Python is via IDLE, the Integrated Development Interface. It opens up a window and you can enter commands at the >>> prompt. You can also open up an editor with File -> New Window and type in a program, then run it using Run -> Run Module. Save your program to a file with a .py extension.

Windows

Start -> All Programs -> Python 2.5 -> IDLE

Mac

Finder -> Applications -> MacPython 2.5 -> IDLE

Unix

$ idle

Hello World!

Check that the Python interpreter is listening by typing the following command at the prompt. It should print Hello World!

>>> print "Hello World!"

Running NLTK's Graphical Demonstrations

Try the following commands. They will produce displays like the ones shown in the Screenshots page

>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.draw.rdparser.demo()
>>> nltk.draw.srparser.demo()
>>> nltk.draw.chart.demo()
>>> nltk.draw.tree.demo()

Other Demonstrations

Most NLTK modules include demonstration code. Here are some examples involving tokenizing, stemming, and tagging:

>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.stem.porter.demo()
>>> nltk.stem.lancaster.demo()
>>> nltk.tag.ngram.demo()
>>> nltk.wordnet.demo()
>>> nltk.probability.demo()

Here are some more examples, involving parsing and semantic interpretation:

>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.chunk.regexp.demo()
>>> nltk.parse.chart.demo()
>>> nltk.sem.evaluate.demo()
>>> nltk.sem.logic.demo()

Online Documentation

You can ask for help on any Python or NLTK object using the built-in help facility, e.g. help(list), help(nltk.parse).