[Zope] advice needed

[Andre Meyer]

Dear Zopers

Sorry for taking your time, but I am looking for advice by someone with
practical  Zope/Python experience(*).

At the moment I am starting to learn Python and Zope. I wanted to do this
for some time, but recently I got in touch with a musician who is interested
in a music database application(**). Thus, I thought I'd take my chance and
do this in Zope. After reading quite some material about Zope I am still
hesitating how to approach the problem.

Should I use ZODB or MySQL? DTML or ZPT? I want to make sure that the
database is safe and can be backed up. Can I access the ZODB using Python
programs? How does this work? Should I first learn Python or Zope? Can I
convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope (using Python)? What would you
suggest for a good solution and how do I learn the required skills in the
shortest amount of time? Are there good comprehensive examples to look at?
It seems that I learn best from looking at other people's code.

Thanks a lot and kind regards
André Meyer
Delft, The Netherlands


(*) I have 20 years of experience in
computing and worked mainly in Java for the last 8 years after using more
exciting languages and have a lot of experience in OO, database modelling,
knowledge engineering, etc.

(*) This is about pieces of old music that are played in various
instrumental settings. One query is to search for combinations of pieces
with a given set of instruments in order to prepare for a concert. The
interface needs to be easy to handle and avoid re-entering the same
information more than once (e.g. a composer or publisher). Therefore, I
foresee that comboboxes are used a lot for selecting previously entered
values/objects. The application first used on a personal workstation, but
may be made available for multi-user access (eventually contributions) on
the Web later on.