Gordon:
I just tested auth with the URL parameters NOT in alphabetical order
and it worked for me. Try it anyway and if it doesn't work I would
recommend taking these steps:
0. Double check your api_key using rtm.test.echo if you haven't.
1. Make certain you are parsing the frob out of the xml correctly.
2. Check your MD5 generation, including the encoding you're using
(should be UTF-8). I recommend comparing the MD5 you get from Python
to one you hand craft and run through a different tool, just to make
sure.
3. Remember that a frob is invalid after ONE use (including a
failure). If you, say, try to make any other call other than one to
the auth URL after getting a frob with your api_key, it will fail.
This tripped me up a bit, since I don't think it's documented. You
cannot reuse a frob.
I hope any one of those solves your problem. If not, keep posting
stuff and we'll keep answering.
BTW, Python rocks. ;)
-Eric