In day2, the author refactored some "old-school" code[1], I'd say I prefer the old-school version (the new version is less readable to me). Old-school is not out-dated nor in-correct IMO.
For `touch a b; echo "$(echo "$(echo "$(ls)")")"`, I'll think about it.
It looks like a bad command to me (nested $ and nested `"` do not smell good). Probably I would mark this a wont-fix. But if I found I does make sense (useful in some meaningful places) - I'll consider to update cicada to align with Bash. Thanks for reporting.
Yeah, I submited once on HN about this project two years ago. Since then quite a few new features have been added and some improvements are made. So it's time to expand the user base a bit :)
Now cicada shell is still have some issues, but overall it's quite usable. I hope it could be useful for people who are seeking simplicity and speed in daily use of the shell.
You're right, I consider Cicada is the "old" generation shell. I intend to keep it simple (for speed etc). Like in readme, it won't introduce functions or other complex stuff. But still can add some feature for my own needs.
For modern shell, please check out xonsh: http://xon.sh/ - powered by Python - It's super cool!