The Test Anything Protocol (TAP) is Perl's standard test result communication language, used by tools like prove (1), libraries like Test::More and applications like Smolder. If you you've ever installed a distribution from the CPAN, it almost certainly ran tests which emitting TAP. If any of your own Perl distributions provide the make test or ./Build test capabilities, you're probably using it yourself.
A proposal to formalize the Protocol as an IETF RFC have been circulating since 2008, and - after some work in fits and bursts - there's a pretty decent draft up on the TestAnything.org wiki. I'm really excited about this; not only will a formal everything-defined-perfectly specification make it easier for TAP producers and consumers to be written in other programming languages, but a solid standard will form a firm foundation upon which more advanced TAP syntax (such as the many ideas here) could be built.
The draft writing has been happening in fits and bursts, but I think we're getting close to completion now. Please have a look at the RFC draft (either as plain text or on the wiki) and tell us where we should focus our efforts. You can get in touch either directly on the Wiki (be bold!) or on the IETF TAP mailing list, or just leave a comment here.
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