Picking out a CMS

[Cosizzle]

Hello everyone,

 

First off I want to thank anyone for their knowledge and help with this subject.

 

For several years I've been learning how to program through hand coding avoiding GUI applications as much as possible. The projects through work I get have been challenging and have greatly improved my skills but there was nothing that put my knowledge to a complete halt.

 

Recently my boss approached me asking if I could re-build our extranet (I hadnt built the first one which was about 6 years ago) It's extremely buggy and to be honest I don't blame him for asking. I told my boss that I would think about it, look into several options and would come back with a yes/no answer in a weeks time.

 

There is nothing I hate more then turning down a project I can't do because I don't know how. For a while now CMS's have popping up more and more on my list of things to learn but I keep shrugging them off because of that whole GUI phobia I have.

 

If I were to hand code this, build the frame work create the databases all that, I would know my approach, and mostly everything I would know how to do. However, I know this isnt the right answer the answer exists within a CMS. Thats where I am now... looking for someone to supply an answer to why a CMS is the solution and why doing it by hand might not be the smartest idea.

 

I looked into several CMS's. Wordpress, Joomla, Zend etc... I just cant seem to wrap my head around them.

 

Again thank you for whom ever can help me out!