Your impression of CI3 over others?

I am here because I need to figure out the working of CI I have a client who had someone start a CI website for him but it did not workout, so he asked me to do the site I agreed but only with Joomla as I am more familiar with it.

CI is manually input syntax and I have no idea where to begin. So far I have manage to backward engineer the workings to the best of my abilities. I have manged over the past week to get the site installed on my local server (xampp) and it's up and running; with only one minor problem that is slowing getting resolved through the help of CI forum members and a lot of searching an opening every single php file... lucky for me there are not that many files.

I am a designer and have huge amount of respect for those who code to me it's a logical artform. To have natural talent and creativity to make what we use everyday come to life. Hats off to all of you.

Scott