Module development and code questions

I had problems with restoring the password, after I installed mass_url.module and as a result of this 404 appeared.
I found out that the form of address was mistaken. In order to restore the password (user/password), you have to find the following lines:
else if ($url_username == ('password')) {
user_page();
return;
}
and to replace
user_page();
with
user_pass();

Two questions here really. You can look at my module's output at http://ouropinion.com/?q=node/5 to see an example of what I'm working with. To see an screen snapshop of the "edit" & "results" tabs, see here.

In developing a module, how can I make other modules it relies upon show and become enabled as 'required'?

After looking at the e-commerce module there seems to be a hook_install() function I can implement, except it doesn't seem to be included in the drupaldocs anywhere and I can't get it to work - it seems just to be ignored.

In addition to this I was wondering is there a drupal IRC channel of some kind where I can talk live with drupal developers? I'm working on a complex project and could use some Q&A assistance from the gurus..

Is there a move to add a default selection to forms for select elements? I need to present an alphabetical list where the most common selection is not the first. I would like to preselect, as the default, one value. If select elements had a default field added then I could specify the default.

I installed the forms module and found I had to run some SQL by hand. Then I had to edit the SQL to place the drupal_ prefix in the table names. Perhaps the Drupal module installation process be improved so that the table creation process can be in a standard function that is run when the module is first enabled in admin.

The SQL could be conditional to create the table if the table does not exist. The existing SQL function would automatically supply the table prefix.

Hi.

I'm currently rewriting a previous project of mine to integrate it into drupal. The main thing that the module would do is create pdf's.

My work is almost finished (needs some documentation still) but relies on a pdf 'library' that i found easy to use at the time i did the original project.
I would like to contribute my work to drupal, but i'm a bit puzzled on how to do it 'right'.