[sigjuice]

I discovered recently that bash function names and aliases allow -

  pi@4b:~ $ kebab-case-ftw () { echo yum; }
  pi@4b:~ $ kebab-case-ftw 
  yum
  pi@4b:~ $ alias kebab-kebob='echo yum'
  pi@4b:~ $ kebab-kebob 
  yum

[kazinator]

Doesn't work for variable names:

  $ foo-bar=3
  foo-bar=3: command not found

Consistency in Unix? Sacrilege.

Make is better in this regard. You can have variables with . in them and with computed variables, that can simulate structures. $($(VAR).member). $(VAR) expands to some abc, and so the $(abc.member) evaluates that variable with a dot in its name.