[zope] python scripts

[Ian!]

I am having a very hard time writing python scripts for zope. I don't know
which objects do what, and I can't find out where to look up the relevant
documentation.

I brought this up in an earlier post to the list, but I didn't get a
response. I've read through the zope book (at
http://www.zope.org/Documentation/ZopeBook/contents ), but it doesn't really
cover what I'm looking for - it doesn't really seem to be a guide to writing
scripts.

The Zope API reference seems to be the reference for people who are
developing products or external methods for zope, because all of those
modules can't imported from within a python script under zope, even though
it seems like stuff I would want to use.
http://www.zope.org/Documentation/ZopeBook/AppendixB.stx

The Zope help from within the zope management interface contains the same
API reference, as well as some other stuff that (as far as I can tell) isn't
what I'm looking for.

I want to get the current CMF member and change some of it's extra data
attributes (attributes which I added with the management interface
portal_memberdata) - I don't know how to do this, but more importantly I
don't know where to look up how to do it. Can anyone help me out? Sorry for
being such a lost newbie =)