Greetings, Monks.

I've recently found myself submitting un-solicited patches to various perl module maintainers. I don't have a high opinion of my own powers of communication, and I'm wondering what new and interesting ways I've put my foot into my mouth. So, my question to you Monks is about the right way to go about submitting a patch to a module maintainer.

First, lets assume my patch is actually (a) good and (b) useful. If I write a crappy patch, which is entirely likely, I'm not going to get anywhere.

So, is it best to just email the patch out of the blue with a few lines explaining what it does? Should I sound out the maintainer first? See if they're at all interested? I figure a busy maintainer in charge of a popular module isn't going to have much time for some complete stranger saying "Hey, I have this nifty idea, and I'll send you a patch real soon now!". I figure it's gotta be better to say "Hey, I have this nifty idea, and here's the patch!"

For those of you who are maintainers of popular packages, what do you like to see? Do you get random patches from weirdos like myself?

Thanks!
--Pileofrogs

In reply to Patch Etiquette? by pileofrogs

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