What happened to [PATCH] Support "core.excludesfile = ~/.gitignore" ?

Hi,

I found a patch to manage ~ in core.excludesfile here:

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/93250

It seems the patch was abandonned by its author near here:

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/93250/focus=94318

Was there any particular reason for dropping the patch other than lack
of time? If not, I'll try to resurect it.

(I have core.excludesfile = /home/moy/.gitignore hardcoded, and I have
to edit it each time I teach Git to a colleague, that would be so much
better to have the same value "~/.gitignore" for everybody ...)

Thanks,

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/