Lots more questions - I will have a try now!!
> How is it possible to host Moodle yourself? Do you have direct access to the
> Internet? Will a broadband connection be sufficient? The instructions for installing
> seemed to assume that everyone hosts their own, since it included activating
> Apache (on my Mac OS X), installing MySQL, and then installing Moodle. I suppose
> that makes sense.
You can host it where you like - but who will be able to see it depends on what the machine is connected to. If your machine can be seen on the internet then you can host moodle yourself. You may only need to see it on your intranet. If you just need to test it then you can run it and use it on a laptop standalone!
> But suppose I don't. Suppose I use a host. Do I configure Moodle to my taste first, > then upload it? Or vice versa? Over the next year or so I expect to make (or hire
> someone to make) significant changes and additions to the graphic interface. Do I
> test these changes on my computer -- but then is it possible to replace the
> original Moodle part by part, or in whole, and not lose any data?
It depends on how much you are going to change. If you are thinking of making significant programatic changes, then I would indeed set up a standalone test system and make the changes there. You can then upload the results to your 'production' host server.
You need ftp (better ssh) access to your webhost to tranfer files from your machine to the webhosting place.
> I've used ftp but not ssh -- what is that?
ssh is very similar to ftp. Significantly it is encrypted and so more secure. From a usage point of view, it replaces ftp (with sftp), telnet (with ssh), and remote copy (with scp), so it is a very versatile set of commands for interacting with a remote site. FTP has all sorts of problems when (as is the case these days) firewalls are involved, so SSH is much better.
>There is no need for you to change tables in the database (but you can if you wish)
> If I do wish, does Moodle allow that directly, or will that require re-programming?
No, you don't need to worry about the database tables, you are only responsible for creating the initial database and setting its permissions - moodle will take care of everything else.
>I don't think Moodle was designed for chopping ...
> "Shopping" wasn't what I had in mind. The college I'm creating is online only,
> there is no other aspect, so paying the teachers and being paid by the students
> needs to be set up. Does Moodle do that, or not?
Not with you - are you talking about some sort of accounting functions? Moodle doesn't have that!