NLTK included in Anacanda2

[John Armstrong]

I've long been aware of warnings against trying to use nltk on 64-bit python on Windows and, since I am totally locked into that environment, I've been postponing getting involved with nltk. But I recently successfully (and in fact very easily) installed anaconda2, and discovered that it actually includes nltk.  (I installed anaconda 2.4.1.1, which includes nltk 3.2.1, which seems to be latest, and can be updated later using the conda utility). 

Anaconda is made for interactive scientific computing and includes an enhanced interpreter shell (iPython for python) and a web-based GUI (jupyter + notebooks) in which the user can author rich (MD) text and formulas, write and run code, collect its output (including plots and charts), and save and restore the full contents of the page.  It seems ideally suited for interactive exploration with nltk; and, even for those preferring to work in a conventional IDE environment (say eclipse + pydev), it provides a fully functional nltk installation.

Maybe there are gotchas but so far I haven't seen any.  That fact that nltk proper is pure python code (no C code -> dlls or shared s.os), I suspect that most/all of the problems with nltk + 64-bit python have to do with failed or flawed installations of the various nltk dependencies.

I'd be interested in hearing other people's experiences, whether good, bad or mixed, using nltk within anaconda and especially 64-bit anaconda on Windows.