do i need a cms?

[ronnieaka]

i'm gonna be building a website,for my summer training,but then later commercialize to earn a few bucks
Main thing is, i want to make it as attractive GUI wise as possible with probably PHP only, and ajax and flash are allowed to get as many marks as possible

and it will basically be yahoo messenger or just like IRC chat on a site:
chatrooms, environs, multiple chats etc. and an option of saving conversation to server against the account of the chatter
so i need a chat application in php - mingled with some other pages like chat room categories and account info of users

So do i need a CMS like Drupal for this?

only things i will need to store will be current chat room info,users' account info and chat conversations of users -> if they want to save them against their account - like an email system of sorts

i've got all the books on drupal and php. but now i'm really confused how to go about developing this site. Drupal is so complex,with all the modules and functions i don't think i would need and reading a few chapters made me think how
much bloated and unnecessary things i've to learn. But then would just PHP code from scratch or with Codeigniter or CakePHP will do it or not in terms of scalabilty ??
and although i'm a quick learner with experience in C++ and Java,i also want to know how much time do you think i might need to get it all done even if very basic gui wise,because i need to complete this by august
I'm confused.

Please help me select the right choice

[twiss]

Well, for something as complex as an online chat thing, it makes little sense to me to use a CMS (unless that CMS has a built-in messenger). A library might really help, who knows.

There are loads of php/ajax chats out there already. You could knock up your own in a few hours. I'd suggest using jQuery for the ajax and pretty interactive stuff. Like twiss, I can't see the advantage of using a cms or a framework for a little project like this. You may find OOP useful, but this could all be done with procedural code as well, hopefully without too many control structures and duplication.

[chrishea]

There is a Drupal chat module:
http://drupal.org/project/chatroom

There are simpler CMS's than Drupal to implement and maintain. You might want some of the CMS functionality, now or in the future. If you start with a separate Chat app, one option is to embed the Chat application within a CMS page later. Joomla and some other CMS's offer this capability (using frames). That leaves the door open to adding a CMS later if you want some of the functions that it provides.