i know it's a dumb question to ask, but...

[yoshi314]

what's the legal status on qhimm's and ficedula tools? is it okay to modify their code and maintain it on one's own?

is it legally ok to use them on my (legal) FF games? and what's the authors view on modifying their sources by other people?is someone maintaining the code [if there are people kind enough to throw in some patches into the source]?

btw. i've recently become a linux-freak, so i wonder how hard would it be to port some of your programs into linux [i cannot call myself a serious programmer yet, but i'm working on it:D]? - i have to run griever from wine [win emulator] to modify my saves [from my pc- and my friends' psx-emulated version]. games run just fine under wineX/wine/cedega and that's just about sweet

[Srethron Askvelhtnod]

is it legally ok to use them on my (legal) FF games?

AFAIK, they're quasi-legal but companies will usually leave you alone (unless they happen to be tools for an online game.) You probably break the EULA (and thus void technical support) by using them.

and what's the authors view on modifying their sources by other people?

IIRC, both Qhimm and Ficedula have released their source code under the standard open source license.  A few of Qhimm's are closed source (like TTG), although if you were serious enough to reverse engineer it and improve it, he probably wouldn't/couldn't stop you. Their might be hell to pay, though. Who knows.
Some of Ficedula's source isn't up to date, but if you ask him, he'll probably give you a current copy. The basic rule is really just common sense: don't pass off anything based off of their source as your own; be sure to give them full credit in any modified work you distribute; keep it free; and make your own source available.

i wonder how hard would it be to port some of your programs into linux

Well, with Qhimm's you'll have to rewrite both the GUI and work around--rewrite--all of the code dependent on the MFC classes. With Ficedula's it's probably just GUI.