Module development and code questions

I know Drupal and it's contribs are open source and 'owned' by the community but I have a quick question: There are a few modules from 4.4 I would really like to use, but they haven't been updated to 4.5 yet. I have a little bit of extra time and am an experienced php'er.
Do I just pick a module I want to use and upgrade it myself? What if others are working on that same module, am I 'stepping on toes' by converting it without asking the creator first?

Hi,

With book.module default, "previous/up/next navigation" is displayed only at the bottom.
Is it possible to add "previous/up/next navigation" at the top, too?
I would like to make it selectable;
- bottom only (current default)
- top only
- both (bottm & top)

thanks & regards,
--
kaz

I noticed when I upgraded to the 4.5 release candidate, that the new taxonomy_context module has changed considerably, in my opinion for the worse.

In 4.4.x, the taxonomy_context module would display blocks with links to nodes/stories within that SPECIFIC taxonomy.

In 4.5.0-RC, the taxonomy_context module displays ALL existing taxonomies in one block. Taxonomy_context has turned into the taxonomy_menu module.

Does anyone know how to make the old 4.4.x version work with the 4.5.0-RC? Or how to change the 4.5.0-RC version into what it used to be?

Someone PLZ convert it to 4.5!!!!!!!!!

The problem: preview or submitting an image upload produces no image - also no php errer. Log says

404 error: images/tmp/tmpthumb_d5d3d1889c7b5aede36427dcd5558b76.jpg not found

The html on the preview page contains the following broken link to the image:

<img  class="image" src="http://www.kerryturner.com/?1840124573" />

Path to convert is correct, all image directories have 777 permissions.

The funny thing is, I developed this site on another server and migrated it to the production server. The code can't be *that* broken since I've already uploaded 100 images on the other server with the same scripts.

What php settings should I check? Is there anything else I forgot? I thought I knew this module.

Just wondering how the upgrade from 4.4 mailhandler to 4.5 mailhandler is going, if it will be released soon or anything?

Same with listhandler!