I am confused as to why Sublime Text 2 build systems tend to put the exec command as an array. Though this is suggested in the docs (and works), just putting the command as a string works just as well, and is (in my opinion) more straightforward.
The Sublime Text build system uses subprocess.Popen, which recommends the usage of an array. Otherwise the interpretation is platform-dependent.
Cited from the python 2 subprocess documentation:
args should be a sequence of program arguments or else a single string. By default, the program to execute is the first item in args if args is a sequence. If args is a string, the interpretation is platform-dependent (...). Unless otherwise stated, it is recommended to pass args as a sequence.
Additional important cite (thanks @Dimpl for pointing that out):
The shell argument (which defaults to False) specifies whether to use the shell as the program to execute. If shell is True, it is recommended to pass args as a string rather than as a sequence.
The shell argument is set True if you use the shell_cmd and False for cmd. Hence based on the cites I would suggest to use an array for cmd and a string for shell_cmd.