# Contributing to NLTK

Hi! Thanks for your interest in contributing to [NLTK](https://www.nltk.org/).
:-) You'll be joining a [long list of contributors](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/blob/develop/AUTHORS.md).
In this document, we'll try to summarize everything that you need to know to
do a good job.


## Code and Issues

We use [GitHub](https://www.github.com/) to host our code repositories and
issues. The [NLTK organization on GitHub](https://github.com/nltk) has many
repositories, so we can manage better the issues and development. The most
important are:

- [nltk/nltk](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/), the main repository with code
  related to the library;
- [nltk/nltk_data](https://github.com/nltk/nltk_data), repository with data
  related to corpora, taggers and other useful data that are not shipped by
  default with the library, which can be downloaded by `nltk.downloader`;
- [nltk/nltk.github.com](https://github.com/nltk/nltk.github.com), NLTK website
  with information about the library, documentation, link for downloading NLTK
  Book etc.;
- [nltk/nltk_book](https://github.com/nltk/nltk_book), source code for the NLTK
  Book.

## Development priorities

NLTK consists of the functionality that the Python/NLP community is motivated to contribute.
Some priority areas for development are listed in the [NLTK Wiki](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/wiki#development).

## Git and our Branching model

### Git

We use [Git](https://git-scm.com/) as our [version control
system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control), so the best way to
contribute is to learn how to use it and put your changes on a Git repository.
There's plenty of documentation about Git -- you can start with the [Pro Git
book](https://git-scm.com/book/).


### Setting up a Development Environment

To set up your local development environment for contributing to the main
repository [nltk/nltk](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/):

- Fork the [nltk/nltk](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/) repository on GitHub
  to your account;
- Clone your forked repository locally
  (`git clone https://github.com/<your-github-username>/nltk.git`);
- Run `cd nltk` to get to the root directory of the `nltk` code base;
- Install the dependencies (`pip install -r pip-req.txt`);
- Install the [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com) hooks: (`pre-commit install`)
- Download the datasets for running tests
  (`python -m nltk.downloader all`);
- Create a remote link from your local repository to the
  upstream `nltk/nltk` on GitHub
  (`git remote add upstream https://github.com/nltk/nltk.git`) --
  you will need to use this `upstream` link when updating your local repository
  with all the latest contributions.

### GitHub Pull requests

We use the famous
[gitflow](https://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/) to manage our
branches.

Summary of our git branching model:
- Go to the `develop` branch (`git checkout develop`);
- Get all the latest work from the upstream `nltk/nltk` repository
  (`git pull upstream develop`);
- Create a new branch off of `develop` with a descriptive name (for example:
  `feature/portuguese-sentiment-analysis`, `hotfix/bug-on-downloader`). You can
  do it by switching to the `develop` branch (`git checkout develop`) and then
  creating a new branch (`git checkout -b name-of-the-new-branch`);
- Do many small commits on that branch locally (`git add files-changed`,
  `git commit -m "Add some change"`);
- Run the tests to make sure nothing breaks
  (`tox -e py312` if you are on Python 3.12);
- Add your name to the `AUTHORS.md` file as a contributor;
- Push to your fork on GitHub (with the name as your local branch:
  `git push origin branch-name`);
- Create a pull request using the GitHub Web interface (asking us to pull the
  changes from your new branch and add to them our `develop` branch);
- Wait for comments.


### Tips

- Write [helpful commit
  messages](https://robots.thoughtbot.com/5-useful-tips-for-a-better-commit-message).
- Anything in the `develop` branch should be deployable (no failing tests).
- Never use `git add .`: it can add unwanted files;
- Avoid using `git commit -a` unless you know what you're doing;
- Check every change with `git diff` before adding them to the index (stage
  area) and with `git diff --cached` before committing;
- Make sure you add your name to our [list of contributors](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/blob/develop/AUTHORS.md);
- If you have push access to the main repository, please do not commit directly
  to `develop`: your access should be used only to accept pull requests; if you
  want to make a new feature, you should use the same process as other
  developers so your code will be reviewed.
- See [RELEASE-HOWTO.txt](RELEASE-HOWTO.txt) to see everything you
  need before creating a new NLTK release.


## Code Guidelines

- Use [PEP8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/);
- Write tests for your new features (please see "Tests" topic below);
- Always remember that [commented code is dead
  code](https://blog.codinghorror.com/coding-without-comments/);
- Name identifiers (variables, classes, functions, module names) with readable
  names (`x` is always wrong);
- When manipulating strings, we prefer either [f-string
  formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/inputoutput.html#formatted-string-literals)
  (f`'{a} = {b}'`) or [new-style
  formatting](https://docs.python.org/library/string.html#format-string-syntax)
  (`'{} = {}'.format(a, b)`), instead of the old-style formatting (`'%s = %s' % (a, b)`);
- All `#TODO` comments should be turned into issues (use our
  [GitHub issue system](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/issues));
- Run all tests before pushing (just execute `tox`) so you will know if your
  changes broke something;

See also our [developer's
guide](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/wiki/Developers-Guide).


## Tests

You should write tests for every feature you add or bug you solve in the code.
Having automated tests for every line of our code lets us make big changes
without worries: there will always be tests to verify if the changes introduced
bugs or lack of features. If we don't have tests we will be blind and every
change will come with some fear of possibly breaking something.

For a better design of your code, we recommend using a technique called
[test-driven development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development),
where you write your tests **before** writing the actual code that implements
the desired feature.

You can use `pytest` to run your tests, no matter which type of test it is:

```
cd nltk/test
pytest util.doctest  # doctest
pytest unit/translate/test_nist.py  # unittest
pytest  # all tests
```


## Continuous Integration

**Deprecated:** NLTK uses [Cloudbees](https://nltk.ci.cloudbees.com/) for continuous integration.

**Deprecated:** NLTK uses [Travis](https://travis-ci.org/nltk/nltk/) for continuous integration.

NLTK uses [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/actions) for continuous integration. See [here](https://docs.github.com/en/actions) for GitHub's documentation.

The [`.github/workflows/ci.yaml`](https://github.com/nltk/nltk/blob/develop/.github/workflows/ci.yaml) file configures the CI:

 - `on:` section
   - ensures that this CI is run on code pushes, pull request, or through the GitHub website via a button.

 - The `cache_nltk_data` job
   - performs these steps:
     - Downloads the `nltk` source code.
     - Load `nltk_data` via cache.
       - Otherwise, download all the data packages through `nltk.download('all')`.

  - The `test` job
    - tests against supported Python versions (`3.8`, `3.9`, `3.10`, `3.11`, `3.12`).
    - tests on `ubuntu-latest` and `macos-latest`.
    - relies on the `cache_nltk_data` job to ensure that `nltk_data` is available.
    - performs these steps:
      - Downloads the `nltk` source code.
      - Set up Python using whatever version is being checked in the current execution.
      - Load module dependencies via cache.
        - Otherwise, install dependencies via `pip install -U -r requirements-ci.txt`.
      - Load cached `nltk_data` loaded via `cache_nltk_data`.
      - Run `pytest --numprocesses auto -rsx nltk/test`.

 - The `pre-commit` job
   - performs these steps:
     - Downloads the `nltk` source code.
     - Runs pre-commit on all files in the repository. (Similar to `pre-commit run --all-files`)
     - Fails if any hooks performed a change.

#### To test with `tox` locally

First setup a new virtual environment, see https://docs.python-guide.org/dev/virtualenvs/
Then run `tox -e py312`.

For example, using `pipenv`:

```
git clone https://github.com/nltk/nltk.git
cd nltk
pipenv install -r pip-req.txt
pipenv install tox
tox -e py312
```


# Discussion

We have three mail lists on Google Groups:

- [nltk][nltk-announce], for announcements only;
- [nltk-users][nltk-users], for general discussion and user questions;
- [nltk-dev][nltk-dev], for people interested in NLTK development.

Please feel free to contact us through the [nltk-dev][nltk-dev] mail list if
you have any questions or suggestions. Every contribution is very welcome!

Happy hacking! (;

[nltk-announce]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nltk
[nltk-dev]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nltk-dev
[nltk-users]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nltk-users
