Module development and code questions

I'm getting started on CVS, using Tortoise on Windows. I've been working on the trip_search module (excellent too), in order to add some new translations. I've spent a lot of time poring over the CVS documentation, but still find it a bit opaque in places - and anyway, one likes to take precautions when playing with other people's work!

I want to avoid working on the CVS HEAD since I assume that this is unstable (messages will be likely to change, so my translations will risk being unstable).

I would like to you turn off email authetication. I don't want emails with passwords. Is there any module which can help me?

Pathauto Module: "Update" Option

Hi.
In Home | administer | settings | Pathauto
Update action:
- Do nothing, leaving the old alias intact
- Create a new alias in addition to the old alias
- Create a new alias, replacing the old one

Q:
What're the difference between the first one and the second one?
It seems to me:
1st) No update will be made. Thus the old alias is still intact.
2nd) Update will be made, but old alias is kept

According to this issue, the taxonomy_access module is no longer being maintained. Is there someone who can help? I think this is a nice module, and would like to use it, but it needs to have a few problems fixed. It probably also needs to be brought up-to-date with HEAD so it will work with Drupal 4.7 when released. Thanks....

Pathauto Module: What does "Verbose" mean

Hi.
In Home | administer | settings | Pathauto
Verbose
It is used to display alias changes (except during bulk updates).

Q:
- I'm not sure if the changes are displayed to admin/mod only, or any registered users, or all people (including anonymous).
Does anyone know the answer?

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I'm using Drupal 4.6.3
Thanks for people who are eager to help me :D

I have a link problem. I put some links to navigation bar. I wrote the file name in the path. But it links to ?q=filename.php. I want it to link only filename.php. What does ?q= mean?