Werner,

 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > A superfluous closing bracket.

fixed

 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > The file and directory permissions in the latex2e.zip bundle are
 > strange.  I suggest `644' for all files and `755' for all directories.

probably better :-)

 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > Some incorrect \changes dates.

changed. and modified the date but not the version for this file :-)

 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > Another file which has changes in it without increasing the version
 > number is `ltdefns.dtx'.
 > 
 >     old LaTeX:        2004/02/20 v1.3g
 >     new beta version: 2004/09/18 v1.3g

again only docu changes so a kernel containing either file would be identical
in code

frank