# NaN Error

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nan-error/92180>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 16, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nan-error/92180 "2007-04-16T22:58:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timperrett)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nan-error/92180/1 "2007-04-16T22:58:42Z")

</div>

> ruby --version  
> ruby 1.8.5 (2006-12-25 patchlevel 12) [sparc-solaris2.8]

> irb
> 
> > Float::MAX  
> > =\> 1.79769313486232e+308
> 
> > 1.0e+300  
> > =\> 1.0e300
> 
> > 1.0e+301  
> > =\> NaN
> 
> > 1.0e+308  
> > =\> NaN
> 
> > 1.0e+309  
> > =\> NaN
> 
> > 1.0e+700  
> > =\> 8.55180271847103e+116
> 
> >

And on my Windows XP machine …

> ruby --version  
> ruby 1.8.5 (2006-12-25 patchlevel 12) [i386-cygwin]

> irb
> 
> > Float::MAX  
> > =\> 1.79769313486232e308
> 
> > 1.0e+300  
> > =\> 1.0e300
> 
> > 1.0e+301  
> > =\> 1.0e301
> 
> > 1.0e+308  
> > =\> 1.0e308
> 
> > 1.0e+309  
> > =\> Infinity
> 
> >

Any idea why the Solaris machine is fairly messed up for large float  
values??

Blessings,  
TwP

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timperrett)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 8:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nan-error/92180/2 "2007-04-17T08:26:31Z")

</div>

Im just learning ruby and im stuck the guide im using says

"Your first program  
Congratulations! Now that you have made it this far, you are ready to  
start writing programs.  
Hello World  
Grab a text editor and type in the following:

puts “Hello World”

Save the file as hello.rb and run it by typing  
ruby hello.rb"

i’ve tried that more than once and it says the out is:

"irb(main):001:0\> ruby hello.rb  
NameError: undefined local variable or method `hello’ for main:Object  
from (irb):1  
irb(main):002:0\> "

the guide never said what word processor should i use  
i tried TextEdit.app but it fussed about the .rb  
so i used Microsoft word and this is what it does…

Any tips?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@timperrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timperrett)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nan-error/92180/3 "2007-04-17T09:19:36Z")

</div>

On 4/17/07, poison tooth [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Save the file as hello.rb and run it by typing  
> i tried TextEdit.app but it fussed about the .rb  
> so i used Microsoft word and this is what it does…
> 
> Any tips?  
> Welcome to ruby.  
> You just hijacked a thread of someone else, you are probably not aware  
> of this.  
> Can you please resend your question to the mailing list, not in reply  
> to this thread.  
> And for future reference, please do not top post.  
> Thx  
> Robert