A number of Electrum fans say they prefer the Electrum client over Armory's setup since it is not burdened by needing a local blockchain. I can't stand Electrum because of it's barren GUI and commandline clunkiness, but a blockchain-less client could be very beneficial for new users who just want to get up and running (since this seems to be Electrum's selling point for it's fans) . Is it feasible to modify the Armory client code to get watching only wallets to query an Electrum server, as well as using Electrum servers to broadcast signed transactions created with Armory's offline signing functionality? I am told that the Electrum server is just a modified Bitcoind so would it be much more difficult to hook in a non-local client like an Electrum server rather than the normal Satoshi client?

If so, where in the code might this be done? And if so how hard would it be to make this happen? If it can be pulled off, then there is one less reason for the Electrum users to dis the use of Armory, and Armory could gain much more flexibility as a result. I personally have no issue using Armory with a full node running, but this could be very beneficial for really slow machines, new users, or situations where you only have watching only wallets on your internet connected machines and simply need to know your balance and need to broadcast signed transactions.

I want to test out the Electrum client but I in no way want to risk my Bitcoins with the client. I want to try out the "wallet from seed" features and get a more in depth go with actual coins. I've searched for documentation on creating a wallet that uses the testnet Bitcoin protocol but I have found absolutely nothing. I'm not even sure if there are any Electrum servers setup to even field requests for testnet.

Can anyone help fill in the gaps here?