I'm not a maintainer of any popular modules, but I have had patches submitted to one or two of mine. I've also submitted patches to a few modules with some success.

There are a few things I can think of that you should think about when submitting a patch:

• Clear explanation of why a patch is needed.
• Unit tests that show the problem (and fix)
• Example code showing the problem (if no unit tests).
• If changing interface or visible behavior, documentation patch as well.

If I can quickly understand the change, and see the corrected behavior, I'm likely to apply the change quickly. If I'm going to have to spend a lot of time trying to decide if it's an improvement, I may put it off while I work on other things. These are not a make-or-break list. The more of them, I see the better quality I expect from the patch.

One thing to avoid is gratuitous code changes (reformatting, re-indenting, changes unrelated to the purpose of the patch). Anything that makes the patch harder to understand (or possibly apply by hand) is likely to slow down the process.

I also try to let the module maintainer know how much I appreciate the module and something (short) about how I'm using it. I am usually surprised and pleased when someone writes me about one of my modules. I find it interesting to see where they turn up.

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