RPC Code Blocked

At my workplace, before code could be submitted
to the repository, it has to be reviewed by another
engineer. Moreover, it has to get a "+2" consent
which can only come from an experienced colleague.
The +2-issuing power creates some sort of pecking
order, which, like other such artificial hierachies,
software engineers often find seriously engaging.

I was called by P often these days for slab 
allocator-related questions and felt it would be
expedient to ask him to review the code I was
trying to check in. It was a general software tool
which I found useful and ignored by most. I was
taken aback after reviewing he said no. I listed
the usage cases but he insisted that I keep it to
myself instead of making it available to other
programmers. I could not imagine he fail to see
the value of the tool but realized he was not
capable of changing his mind no matter how I
explained. This reminded me of something said
about book critics who found fault with a work
because they secretly hoped they could have
written it themselves.

 

I didn't sleep well the night before and this
little run-in had some negative impact on how I
felt. I expected people to be supportive and
honest, not what Marcus Aurelius would have done.
He said almost 2000 years ago: 
        
        “When you wake up in the morning, tell
        yourself: the people I deal with today
        will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant,
        dishonest, jealous and surly. ... To
        obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel
        anger at someone, to turn your back on
        him: these are unnatural.”  

So I attributed P's rejection to the poor performance
of his stock investment ;-) and continuted to help
him with the slab allocator. Meanwhile, I quietly
turned to another colleague for code review. He
warmed up to the idea right away.

[7grizzly]

回複 '暖冬cool夏' 的評論 : Thank you, 暖冬, for your comment. As you rightly pointed out, the procedure can be counter-productive. Normally, people would pointed out technical details they are not happy with and give the green light once the author fixed them. This was not the case for me.

A saying, maybe from some Chinese KungFu movie, is "有人的地方就有江湖。“ It's hard to avoid conflicts with people. Fortunately, Marcus Aurelius's wisdom can help.

[暖冬cool夏]

Though I am not in your area, it is still the first time to hear that your codes be reviewed by people and be consented. What if the reviewer is not cooperative or is a nitpicker (I assume most engineers are nice and reasonable). Isn't the implementation best way to test or review? Is this kind of procedure counterproductive?