$isfrontpage = false; // Context is part of frontpage
$iscoursepage = false; // coursepage other than fp

if (is_inside_frontpage($context)) { $isfrontpage = true; } else if ($context->contextlevel == CONTEXT_COURSE) {
if ($context->instanceid == SITEID) { $isfrontpage = true; } else { $iscoursepage = true; }
}

The attached patches are incorrect - they seem to fix only one particular capability setup, it does not deal with negative capability overrides.

Major problems are:
1/ it is going to run out of memory and course major performance problems if there are a few thousand site users with the given capability
2/ if we implement support for the CAP_PREVENT override of the default frontpage role the normal role assignments on the frontpage will be eliminated by the frontpage role (thanks to the over-engineered capability evaluation in 1.9.x)

Sending new patch, I am not really sure if it is a good idea to make this change, so I have added on new config.php switch that enables the patch.

Expect big problems especially on large sites where Student role is selected as the default frontpage role.

Just also add a line in config-dist.php and perhaps include a MDL-19004 reference in the comments near the code.

Thanks!

petr