Is this really ActiveRecord?

[eluser]Pascal Kriete[/eluser]
It certainly isn't ORM, and never claims to be. It isn't really ActiveRecord, either. According to the manual it's a modified version.

CodeIgniter uses a modified version of the Active Record Database Pattern.

In all reality it's probably best described as a database adaptor.

A little note on the difference between ORM and AR:
ORM often uses an ActiveRecord pattern, but the reverse isn't true. The difference is basically that AR does not have to handle relationships, it usually just describes them. So pure AR is: Blog.delete() ... Comments.delete(). ORM will automatically cascade.