(Or, "How do I get Alexandre to apply my patch quickly so I can build on it and it will not go stale?")
Make sure your patch applies to the current CVS head revisions. If a bunch of patches are commited to CVS that may affect whether your patch will apply cleanly then verify that your patch does apply! cvs update is your friend!
Save yourself some embarasment and run your patched code against more than just your current test example. Experience will tell you how much effort to apply here.