R devel - Nov 2009 - Strange code in `?`

Hello,

In R 2.10, looking at:

 > `?`
function (e1, e2)
{
     if (missing(e2)) {
         type <- NULL
         topicExpr <- substitute(e1)
     }
     else {
         type <- substitute(e1)
         topicExpr <- substitute(e2)
     }
     if (is.call(topicExpr) && topicExpr[[1L]] == "?") {
         search <- TRUE
         topicExpr <- topicExpr[[2L]]
         if (is.call(topicExpr) && topicExpr[[1L]] == "?"
&&
is.call(topicExpr[[2L]]) &&
             topicExpr[[2L]][[1L]] == "?") {
             cat("Contacting Delphi...")
             flush.console()
             Sys.sleep(2 + rpois(1, 2))
             cat("the oracle is unavailable.\nWe apologize for any 
inconvenience.\n")
             return(invisible())
         }
     }

[...]

I am especially puzzled by this part:

cat("Contacting Delphi...")
flush.console()
Sys.sleep(2 + rpois(1, 2))
cat("the oracle is unavailable.\nWe apologize for any
inconvenience.\n")

We now got jokes in R code? Why not? ;-)
Best,

Philippe
-- 
..............................................<?}))><........
  ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
  ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
  ) ) ) ) )   Mons University, Belgium
( ( ( ( (
..............................................................

I don't know if this is really a joke. It is certainly not easy to answer
   `?`(`?`(`?`(`?`(`?`))))
and spending some time trying to contact Delphi (maybe in order to 
permit cosmic radiation to feed the solution into the computer's RAM) is 
possibly one of the most promising approaches ;-)

Best,
  Martin

Philippe Grosjean wrote:
> Hello,
>
> In R 2.10, looking at:
>
> > `?`
> function (e1, e2)
> {
>     if (missing(e2)) {
>         type <- NULL
>         topicExpr <- substitute(e1)
>     }
>     else {
>         type <- substitute(e1)
>         topicExpr <- substitute(e2)
>     }
>     if (is.call(topicExpr) && topicExpr[[1L]] == "?") {
>         search <- TRUE
>         topicExpr <- topicExpr[[2L]]
>         if (is.call(topicExpr) && topicExpr[[1L]] == "?"
&&
> is.call(topicExpr[[2L]]) &&
>             topicExpr[[2L]][[1L]] == "?") {
>             cat("Contacting Delphi...")
>             flush.console()
>             Sys.sleep(2 + rpois(1, 2))
>             cat("the oracle is unavailable.\nWe apologize for any 
> inconvenience.\n")
>             return(invisible())
>         }
>     }
>
> [...]
>
> I am especially puzzled by this part:
>
> cat("Contacting Delphi...")
> flush.console()
> Sys.sleep(2 + rpois(1, 2))
> cat("the oracle is unavailable.\nWe apologize for any
inconvenience.\n")
>
> We now got jokes in R code? Why not? ;-)
> Best,
>
> Philippe
-- 
Dr. Martin Becker
Statistics and Econometrics
Saarland University
Campus C3 1, Room 206
66123 Saarbruecken
Germany