If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to think about the difference between IEEE 754 floating-point sNaNs and qNaNs, and keep getting mixed up about which one interrupts execution, here’s a handy way to remember: They’re definitely not “silent” and “querulous”. Because no standards body would name something “querulous”.

This was a quip I made on Twitter years ago. I never got them mixed up again.

(The actual two types of NaNs are “quiet” and “signaling”.)

This entry was posted on April 01, 2023 and is filed under Technical.