refactor support.py

[willkg]

From #182.

I don't know what needs to be refactored. @gsnedders would need to provide more guidance as to what needs to be done here.

[gsnedders]

It's a bit of a mess, really, mostly because of the various disjoined things in it. I don't really know what the better structure looks like. I just don't really like it. :)