python - Please help a newbie install NLTK on Mac OS 10.5.8

Question

I'm completely new to programming. I've been trying various ways to install NLTK on my Mac (running OS 10.5.8), and none of them is working. Please help! Here's what I've done so far.

Since at first I didn't realize that newer versions of Python required OS 10.6 or higher, I first tried to install the latest versions of both Python 3 and Python 2, but this obviously didn't work. I then cottoned on and found an older installation (the filename is python-2.7.6-macosx10.3.dmg), which installed successfully.

I then tried to follow the instructions on this page, which I copy below:

1. Install Setuptools: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools

2. Install Pip: run sudo easy_install pip

3. Install Numpy (optional): run sudo pip install -U numpy

4. Install PyYAML and NLTK: run sudo pip install -U pyyaml nltk

5. Test installation: run python then type import nltk

Steps 1 and 2 worked fine, but when I try steps 3 and 4, I get an error. The error is the same whether I try step 3 or step 4:

unknown0021E9E0E476:~ Tom$ sudo pip install -U numpy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/pip", line 8, in <module> load_entry_point('pip==1.4.1', 'console_scripts', 'pip')()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 271, in load_entry_point
return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2173, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 1906, in loadentry = __import__(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['__name__'])
File "/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pip-1.4.1-py2.5.egg/pip/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
from pip.util import get_installed_distributions, get_prog
File "/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pip-1.4.1-py2.5.egg/pip/util.py", line 17, in <module>
from pip.vendor.distlib import version
File "/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pip-1.4.1-py2.5.egg/pip/vendor/distlib/version.py", line 13, in <module>
from .compat import string_types
File "/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pip-1.4.1-py2.5.egg/pip/vendor/distlib/compat.py", line 276
return b''
         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I then found a different set of instructions on this page. It first has you install Xcode and MacPorts, which I did (again finding older versions compatible with 10.5.8). I got through the next few steps successfully: installed python27, made it the system default (sudo port select --set python python27), and installed the dependencies py27-numpy, py27-yaml, and py27-scipy. However, I can't install one needed package, py27-matplotlib. Here's what happens when I try:

unknown0021E9E0E476:~ Tom$ sudo port install py27-matplotlib
--->  Computing dependencies for py27-matplotlib
--->  Dependencies to be installed: py27-pyobjc-cocoa py27-pyobjc py27-six py27-tkinter tk Xft2 tcl xorg-libXScrnSaver xorg-scrnsaverproto py27-tornado py27-backports-ssl_match_hostname py27-backports
--->  Staging py27-pyobjc into destroot
Error: org.macports.destroot for port py27-pyobjc returned: command execution failed
Error: Failed to install py27-pyobjc
Please see the log file for port py27-pyobjc for details:
/opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_python_py-pyobjc/py27-pyobjc/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: py27-pyobjc-cocoa py27-pyobjc py27-six py27-tkinter tk Xft2 tcl xorg-libXScrnSaver xorg-scrnsaverproto py27-tornado py27-backports-ssl_match_hostname py27-backports
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port py27-matplotlib failed

Without this package, I can't go on to install NLTK.

I've also tried installing NLTK in PyCharm, but that didn't work either: see this question. I'm at my wits' end here, so any help would be much appreciated!

ETA: Problem solved! I downloaded the tar.gz file from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/nltk and followed the install instructions in the package, and now I can import NLTK in the Python shell. Is it possible that I was simply trying to install things while in the wrong directory? (I'd still like to use NLTK in PyCharm, so answers to that question will still be welcome.)

Answer 1

Try installing the scipy package which includes matplotlib and numpy, I was a TA on a course where we used numpy and matplotlib quite a lot and using the scipy package to install was a solution for a lot of people. The individual binary and source packages are available from: scipy docs

  sudo port install py27-numpy py27-scipy py27-matplotlib py27-ipython +notebook py27-pandas py27-sympy py27-nose