[OpenID] Backwards Compatibility

[SitG Admin]

>Which of the following testing methodologies sounds like the most 
>useful at this point in time?
>(a) Reference Implementation to test against
>(b) Conformance test suite with logging, verbose error handling and 
>reporting, etc.
>(c) Just a test procedures document that clearly lays out 
>interoperability testing per conformance "mode"

I'm inclined to put up a permanent conformance "mode" (URI) hosted 
locally (to my RP) called 'auditing': users would be able to log in 
with it at any time, and see an informative, step-by-step readout of 
what the code was doing. I was thinking about making this 
URI-specific, but here's an argument for making it an OpenID 
parameter instead: what if someone else is using *my* implementation 
to TEST *their* implementation? They don't want to just use what 
*I've* set up, they want to know what happens during my interaction 
with *their* OP. This is greater transparency, and also leads to more 
understanding of the underlying protocol by those using it (which is 
not necessarily a good thing, but I believe the increase in overall 
understanding will outweigh the increase in overall confusion).

-Shade