[R] Probably off topic but I hope amusing

[Jeff Newmiller]

AFAIK NaN originated in the floating point standard IEEE754-1985 as a range of bit patterns that have all 1 bits in the exponent, and the convention to convert such bit patterns to the string "NaN" is an obvious way to handle output of such patterns, regardless of language. Pasting a % symbol after a converted floating point number is likewise common. Not sure I see R lurking here... could just as easily be Python or Java or some other programming language.

On October 29, 2021 10:55:52 AM PDT, Avi Gross via R-help <r-help using r-project.org> wrote:
>Bert,
>
>R is used all over the place, sometimes not visibly.
>
>A search shows the NY times using it in 2011, 2009, ...:
>
>https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.h
>tml
>
>https://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2011/03/how-the-new-york-times-uses-r-f
>or-data-visualization.html
>
>There also seem to be several packages for interfacing with the NY Times,
>albeit that does not mean much about their usage.
>
>However, the error message using the phrase "NaN" is not a guarantee as
>there are other languages that use the concept, albeit may not capitalize it
>the same way. But in an error message, any programmer can be setting up the
>text. According to this reference, Rust and ECMAScript also call it a NaN:
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN
>
>I am a tad confused it lists a form of "NaN%" without specifying if any
>language specifically uses it and your example ended with a percent sign.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: R-help <r-help-bounces using r-project.org> On Behalf Of Bert Gunter
>Sent: Friday, October 29, 2021 11:36 AM
>To: R-help <r-help using r-project.org>
>Subject: [R] Probably off topic but I hope amusing
>
>There was a little discussion today (yet again) about floating point
>arithmetic. Perhaps related to this, I subscribe to the online NYTimes,
>which flashes U.S. stock index prices at the top of its home page. Today,
>instead of the Nasdaq price being flashed, there was this:
>
>undefined-NaN%
>
>I wonder if this means that R is being used as a backend for this or whether
>this way of displaying what I think is 0/0 in FP is common.
>
>Anyway, what do you think most readers reaction to this was?!
>
>Best to all,
>Bert
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.