Am 21.04.2016 um 07:18 schrieb Olof Bjarnason:
Because of gits popularity whatever is included in the git for windows installation is likely to be the choice that gains most developer traction:
It's not an an "either / or" decision (MinGW and MSYS are complimentary, MSYS is installed as a part of the original MinGW nowadays, which we can't use for 64-bit builds though). MinGW is always needed since it contains the GNU Compiler Collection and therefore is mandatory.
MSYS provides a small subset of *nix tools that might be useful while developing but typically are not needed. It's included in GIT, but normally not added to the PATH, so it would complicate setup instructions even more (also you're quickly in incompatibility hell if any program adds itself to the PATH variable - e.g. the python included in Bazaar messed up my Inkscape plugin system once)
I'll see if I find some time to check out the CMake build myself in the coming weeks (since I should receive a new machine these days and hopefully don't need an hour for a full compile of Inkscape anymore it might increase my motivation to play around with the build infrastructure. ;-) ). I guess I can then tell better what advantages MSYS might offer.
Regards, Eduard