[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.