The tool the old expeditions never had

NLP++ & VisualText

NLP++ is the universal programming language for text — deterministic, inspectable, and built on a cognitive model of how humans read and understand. VisualText is the IDE that lets you see language being processed.

What it is

NLP++ is the universal programming language for text.

Most language tools are built for one task and break on the next. NLP++ was designed from the ground up to handle any text-processing problem — a single, transparent substrate where the knowledge and the algorithms are authored by people and can be read, corrected, and trusted. It is the foundation the climb is built on.

The creators

A dream programming language for natural language.

Between 1998 and 2001, Amnon Meyers and David de Hilster created their "Dream Programming Language" for natural language — the system that became NLP++ and VisualText.

David de Hilster

David de Hilster

Co-creator of NLP++ and creator of VisualText.

Amnon Meyers

Amnon Meyers

Co-creator of NLP++ and creator of the NLP Engine and Conceptual Grammar.

How it works

Based on a cognitive model of how humans read.

NLP++ is based on a cognitive model of how humans read and understand text. The language lets coders concentrate on the task at hand without having to worry about the programming language — something that, without NLP++, is not possible.

Tree of Structure

Text has structure

Phrases, dates, times, headers, sentences, paragraphs, tables, and more — text is organized, and NLP++ represents that organization explicitly.

Pipeline

Built from the ground up

The analyzer sequence builds the text tree structure from the ground up, into larger and larger components.

Rules & Functions

Language is rule-based

Noam Chomsky showed that human language is rule-based, and NLP++ has a powerful function and rule system for text.

Knowledge

Knowledge and language intertwined

Knowledge and language are intertwined and both necessary for understanding language and text the way we humans do.

Why VisualText

Visualizing with VisualText.

The human brain is bad at logic but good at visualizing. VisualText allows for the visualization of text processing — which is otherwise hard for humans to follow.

01

Bad at Math

Humans don't natively reason through long chains of formal logic — so we shouldn't have to in order to build language systems.

02

Bad at Language Processing

The mechanics of parsing text are hard to hold in your head. VisualText surfaces them on screen instead.

03

Using Our Visual Acuity

By making text processing visible, VisualText plays to the brain's real strength — seeing structure at a glance.

The road ahead

Governing the code.

Meyers and de Hilster are looking to the foundation to continue their work on the NLP Engine and VisualText well into the future.

The machine

NLP Engine

The NLP Engine is the machine that runs the NLP Blockchain and the Great Digital Migration, and must be maintained and enhanced as the community grows.

View on GitHub →
The tool

VisualText

VisualText is the tool coders use to create the data and algorithms in the Great Digital Migration, and must grow with the community.

Get VisualText →