Any Migration Tips re field types, patches for a Beginner Moving MySQL tables 2 Drupal?

'Morning, one and all. If anyone has time for tip or two on this, I'd LOVE it! Spent a lil' time this weekend reading Drupal

API+ sites, and I found a patch that I think will help me migrate date type fields from a MySQL table into a Drupal CCK node.

But I am having trouble synthesizing what I've read. I have the Migrate/Table Wizard/Schema modules installed. And the migration works when I exclude the non-supported field types, dates in my case. At risk of being ... inelegant, my reading took me here:

http://drupal.org/node/200953#comment-1763166
http://qa.drupal.org/pifr/test/9269

So my questions include:
- Can I use this with my version of 6.19. I couldn't tell if this was a patch for now or part of Drupal 7 dev or both or...
- Had trouble with the patch directions: can I just drop this .diff file in the module folder and go, or do I need some CVS utility (huh?), or do I cut and paste the code (but where)? I'm happy with any or all of those, just need a helpful nudge, I guess.
- Do I put the php tags around the file? (I think yes, but...)
- And the file paths throw me. For example, I do not have the /mysql/ layer described (?) below & found in the posted file:

--- includes/database/mysql/schema.inc
+++ includes/database/mysql/schema.inc

I just have

C:\wamp\www\drupal\includes\database.mysql-common.inc

I am using Drupal 6.19 on a Windows XP Pro SP3 machine as a dev space within a firewall. Back ups are good, got that. Prob'ly flying blind o'wise. Got a lot more reading to do (I realize I very well may have crossed the "keep it to a simple question on here" maxim, but any pointers/tips, are AWESOME), and thanks for takin' a look at this post!