[seul-edu] Cafeteria Program... now asking for help in learning...

[Ryan Booz <ryanbooz@alumni.psu.edu>]

Hello gang,

I have at times in the past few months come and "abused" this list...
easy to do when there are so many people with answers!  However, I come
again, this time asking for someone that might be interested in helping
me learn how to do some stuff - so that I'm not asking someone to "write
me a program" and so that I can grab a hold of some more practical
experience.

A few months ago I had asked for input on a point of sale program for
doing Cafeteria lunches at my school.  Some help was offered, but quite
understandably, school was starting for all of us and the time never
seemed to make itself available to get a start on a program.  So now
I've chosen to try it myself... with some help if I can find it.

To remind you, I work at a small Christian school in PA, 315 student
K-12.  The commercial programs are far out of our budget this year...
and I know there is a way to get the basics of what we need with a
database and a web interface of some type.  I can find the email from
long ago and post it, but basically it has to be able to keep track of
student money for lunches on a daily basis - that's per student.  So
when little Suzi comes through the line, her ID gets punched in, her
money status gets brought up, and either she pays, has money taken off
her account, or she gets charged.  Then at the end of the day, it needs
to spit out how many lunches were sold, how many cookies, how many
milks... for the state records (and ours I guess).

So here's what I'm asking for.  I've been spending my Thanksgiving break
trying (with marginal success) to learn SQL (via MySQL) and have begun
thinking on what this database needs to look like.  This is my first
stumbling block.  Hopefully by tomorrow I will have a "data model" and
would first like some input from others whether or not I'm on the right
track.  Then, I would like some help in writing the CGI programs to use
with the database so that the appropriate stuff can happen.  I would
prefer to do it in Python since that's what I'm going to be teaching
next semester (first language class ever in my school) and I would like
all the experience I can get using it.

My time table for this thing is probably two months at the latest.  The
cafeteria boss goes on vacation in Feb. and would like to be using
something before then so that she can leave with peace of mind.

I appreciate any help or thoughts any of you can give.  Everyone here
has always been helpful and understanding of the different backgrounds
we all come from.... technical experience wise that is!

Sincerely,
Ryan Booz
Tech Coordinator
Belleville Mennonite School