Hi Thomas, wrong mailing list. You wanted wine-devel instead (now cc'ed.)
I don't know about wine development, but are these patches still likely to work? What would need to happen for them to be merged in?
To your first question, try them and see! To your second question, a lot. They're much too large to be merged at a single go, they lack tests, and they should be sent by their original author. I wouldn't hold your breath expecting these patches to go in as-is: if they weren't good enough in 2004-5, they're not any better now. You'd want someone who has an active interest in this area to have a go at them, I believe, unless you can convince the original author to take them up again. --Juan