diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 10258d2b54e..18f319b10b3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 14. The CSV loader incorrectly threw an exception when given
     header=true (the default).  (ryan, yonik)
 
+15. SOLR-449: the python and ruby response writers are now able to correctly 
+    output NaN and Infinity in their respective languages.  (klaas)
 
 Other Changes
  1. SOLR-135: Moved common classes to org.apache.solr.common and altered the
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/JSONResponseWriter.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/JSONResponseWriter.java
index 67fbdc936e2..0eb4477b44e 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/JSONResponseWriter.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/JSONResponseWriter.java
@@ -689,3 +689,39 @@ class JSONWriter extends TextResponseWriter {
   }
 
 }
+
+abstract class NaNFloatWriter extends JSONWriter {
+  
+  abstract protected String getNaN();
+  abstract protected String getInf();
+
+  public NaNFloatWriter(Writer writer, SolrQueryRequest req, SolrQueryResponse rsp) {
+    super(writer, req, rsp);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void writeFloat(String name, float val) throws IOException {
+    if (Float.isNaN(val)) {
+      writer.write(getNaN());
+    } else if (Float.isInfinite(val)) {
+      if (val < 0.0f)
+        writer.write('-');
+      writer.write(getInf());
+    } else {
+      writeFloat(name, Float.toString(val));
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void writeDouble(String name, double val) throws IOException {
+    if (Double.isNaN(val)) {
+      writer.write(getNaN());
+    } else if (Double.isInfinite(val)) {
+      if (val < 0.0)
+        writer.write('-');
+      writer.write(getInf());
+    } else {
+      writeDouble(name, Double.toString(val));
+    }
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/PythonResponseWriter.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/PythonResponseWriter.java
index 98a0665d923..742e60df598 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/PythonResponseWriter.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/PythonResponseWriter.java
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@ public class PythonResponseWriter implements QueryResponseWriter {
   }
 }
 
-class PythonWriter extends JSONWriter {
+class PythonWriter extends NaNFloatWriter {
+  protected String getNaN() { return "float('NaN')"; }
+  protected String getInf() { return "float('Inf')"; }
+
   public PythonWriter(Writer writer, SolrQueryRequest req, SolrQueryResponse rsp) {
     super(writer, req, rsp);
   }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/RubyResponseWriter.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/RubyResponseWriter.java
index c010513d711..c16f5389cf2 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/RubyResponseWriter.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/request/RubyResponseWriter.java
@@ -42,7 +42,11 @@ public class RubyResponseWriter implements QueryResponseWriter {
   }
 }
 
-class RubyWriter extends JSONWriter {
+class RubyWriter extends NaNFloatWriter {
+
+  protected String getNaN() { return "(0.0/0.0)"; }
+  protected String getInf() { return "(1.0/0.0)"; }
+
   public RubyWriter(Writer writer, SolrQueryRequest req, SolrQueryResponse rsp) {
     super(writer, req, rsp);
   }
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/solr/request/JSONWriterTest.java b/src/test/org/apache/solr/request/JSONWriterTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ddf995ec2e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/solr/request/JSONWriterTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.solr.request;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Writer;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
+
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
+import org.apache.solr.util.AbstractSolrTestCase;
+
+/** Test some aspects of JSON/python writer output (very incomplete)
+ *
+ */
+public class JSONWriterTest extends AbstractSolrTestCase {
+    
+  public String getSchemaFile() { return "schema.xml"; }
+  public String getSolrConfigFile() { return "solrconfig.xml"; }
+    
+  public void testNaNInf() throws IOException {
+    SolrQueryRequest req = req("dummy");
+    SolrQueryResponse rsp = new SolrQueryResponse();
+    QueryResponseWriter w = new PythonResponseWriter();
+
+    StringWriter buf = new StringWriter();
+    rsp.add("data1", Float.NaN);
+    rsp.add("data2", Double.NEGATIVE_INFINITY);
+    rsp.add("data3", Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY);
+    w.write(buf, req, rsp);
+    assertEquals(buf.toString(), "{'data1':float('NaN'),'data2':-float('Inf'),'data3':float('Inf')}");
+
+    w = new RubyResponseWriter();
+    buf = new StringWriter();
+    w.write(buf, req, rsp);
+    assertEquals(buf.toString(), "{'data1'=>(0.0/0.0),'data2'=>-(1.0/0.0),'data3'=>(1.0/0.0)}");
+
+  }
+  
+}