Converting a module (not my own) from 5.x to 6.x...what am I getting into?

I'm working on potentially converting my company's knowledge base to Drupal, and the existence of these two modules at sub 6.x compatibility is a bit of a thorn in my side.

http://drupal.org/project/livesearch
http://drupal.org/project/importexportapi

It looks as though people have already requested 6.x, but I haven't seen any activity on them (it looks as though Import/Export may be abandonware). I'm no expert with PHP, but I'm willing to learn. Am I foolish to try and figure out how to upgrade these appropriately?

Thanks