[DO NOT MERGE YET] Feature/new interface

This PR is made against the ``` brave_new_develop ``` branch, and is open early for comments, discussion and objections.  It implements integration tests against my local copy of ``` crichton_test_service ``` until the outstanding PRs are merged.  It also implements the first bits of the proposed new interface.  It has removed the need for active support so far, and I'd like to keep it that way.  However, this will end up being a significant rewrite, so expect more red to come in the diff.

Specs pass:
```
Finished in 12.12 seconds
42 examples, 0 failures, 1 pending

Randomized with seed 4080
```