The co-authors David de Hilster, and Amnon Meyers, of the NLP++ programming language and framework are finishing up their first textbook on NLP++ entitled: “Trustworthy Rule-Based NLP with NLP++”. They are looking to have the book ready by fall 2025 in time to be used by RVCE University which is planning to teach the first class on NLP based on the computer programming language NLP++.
With interest in NLP++ and VisualText growing and David de Hilster now an adjunct professor at Northeastern University in Miami, de Hilster and Meyers are putting together their first textbook based on their programming language NLP++ which they created 25 years ago, but which is now gaining attention in the AI community as an alternative to untrustworthy statistical systems like machine learning, neural networks, and large language models like ChatGPT.
HPCC Systems and Universities
Currently semi-retired, de Hilster’s last job was with the HPCC Systems supercomputing group at LexisNexis Risk in Boca Raton Florida where he integrated NLP++ with the HPCC Systems supercomputer. During that time, de Hilster also created the NLP++ language extension for VSCode as well as the NLP Engine.
During de Hilster’s tenure at LexisNexis Risk, he spent more than 6 years working with interns on various AI projects including NLP++ projects. It was there that he started developing relationships with several universities world-wide including Clemson University, the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and RVCE university in India. De Hilster worked with Clemson University grad student Ashton Williamson on the first master’s thesis using NLP++ where de Hilster also was invited to speak on intelligent programming with NLP++. De Hilster worked with students from around the world on numerous NLP++ projects including students from RVCE university which took a keen interest in working with the NLP++ technology.
RVCE University
Having done numerous projects with RVCE University, de Hilster and the University entered into an cooperative relationship creating a “Memorandum of Understanding” between RVCE and the Natural Language Understanding Global Initiative. Since then, de Hilster and Meyers have given several workshops for RVCE under the guidance of Dean of Computer Science and Engineering Dr. G. Shobha and assistant Dean Dr. Merin Thomas.
Dr. Thomas will be working in the summer of 2025 on putting together a computer course using NLP++ and thus the impetus for the writing of the first textbook on NLP++.
Northeastern University
In January of 2025, de Hilster became an adjunct professor at Northeastern University Miami teaching an SQL database class to graduate students. He was hired because of his 40 years in industry in AI and NLP. De Hilster is spearheading a new project in conjunction with Northeastern University and Amnon Meyer’s Conceptual Systems company called the “NLP Blockchain” which would create distributed AI in the form of NLP based on the NLP++ programming language.
Content and Availability
De Hilster and Meyers plan on publishing the book under the Open Access model, making it available to everyone. This is in line with NLP++ which is open source. The table of contents is as follows:
- Introduction
- Thinking Like a Human – talking about the mindset needed for creating NLP analyzers using NLP++
- VisualText – The VSCode NLP++ language extension which is called “VisualText”
- NLP++Language – A technical description of the NLP++ language (this is the largest part of the book)
- Example Analyzers – Three example analyzers of typical uses for NLP++
- Integrating NLP++Analyzers – How to integrate NLP++ analyzers into computer systems
- Unicode
Future Plans
It is hoped that in August of 2025, RVCE University will be using the textbook for their rule-based NLP class. De Hilster also hopes to eventually teach a course at Northeastern University.
De Hilster and Meyers also hope to write more textbooks using NLP++ including one more geared towards computational linguists.
