title: What is happening when you set a compilation path?
body: <p>I understand it is somehow making a connection so that a compiler when envokes connects a source code to whatever libraries that it needs to.</p>
  
  <p>But what is going on a more technical level, or better put what do I need to know in order to confidentally compile code.</p>
  
  <p>I'm working with C++ and MinGW, and have started to look into build files and stuff for Sublime Text 2 (Have learned mostly under unix, or Java + eclipse so far). But what I don't understand what is adding a compiler to your path do for you?</p>
  
  <p>Do I need to add it for every folder I want to compile from? Or is it system wide? I'm really learning this stuff for the first time, we we're never showed how to set up development environments or even deploy code on other systems. </p>