linking libgit.a in C++ projects

I'm writing a git gui for OS X using cocoa/Objective-C++, and rather than being lame and parsing the output the various git commands, I'm using libgit.a to provide all of the needed functionality for my app. However, the git source uses a few reserved C++ keywords; namely 'typename', and 'new'. So, I was wondering if it is worth submitting a patch to fix these issues... I'm asking because I'm new to the whole open source thing, and I don't want to get yelled at by the git maintainers for submitting stupid patches that no one in their right mind would accept :)

Thanks!