Are the CodeBlocks files in build/projects/ for Linux or windows or both ?
I guess it is for both (but tested only on windows.
The downloadable dependency package is for windows + MinGw or windows + MSVC only I presume ?
It works with both MinGW and MSVS2013 (at least - only tested). This can be checked on github by looking at appVeyor's results.
I tried setting up a environment with integrated debugging by generating a project file with cmake. win xp + MSVC 2008 seems too problematic, as UFO:AI is using newer C++ features while MSVC is behind g++/Linux or MinGw in supporting them, but Linux + CodeBlocks works pretty well.
I've not tested with MSVS2008. But if you say the code uses newer features, I guess nobody will want to rollback to such an old version.
cmake seems to find and use the dependencies from the OS rather than the ones in src/libs/.
It depends on how your PATH is set. However, src/libs are sources files AFAIK. So, the needed ones have been used. The others are not.