* Yes to setting up a different database for testing. This is how other testing suites are run. This is how we should do it as well.

* Hmm, yes to a more developer-friendly test framework. I don't have the time to commit my time fully to this, but at a glance, this basically means we'd be writing tests as more of... data input, rather than writing code right? I think that would be immensely helpful.

* Yes, I think that would be good practice. If nothing else, it could be a good way to train people to get as far as checking out the codebase and submitting a patch. Maybe good to check whether it works for other projects though before we dive in?