Why is C# case sensitive?

[mendhak]

I am not having a good time running through a small C# article regarding Automation.

While writing code, I don't want to worry about whether I wrote "int" or "INT". I'd rather focus on achieving something, not making it 'look right'. It's going to be those days of JavaScript again, where I had to spend 15 minutes debugging a large function only to find out that I had misspelt the word textArea.

Why is C# case sensitive? This is really sad... why didn't they just give VB.NET all the features that C# has to itself exclusively and let us live in peace? Or, if they really wanted something that was close to C/C++/Java, why not allow for case insensitivity? It would be a refreshing change. Just because people have been doing something (dare I say dumb) for 20 years does not mean it should continue. Make a change!!

I actually googled this and came across this article. This has to be the worst excuse I've ever seen:

Perhaps surprisingly to you, we didn't spend a lot of time on this question while designing C#. Rather, we felt that this was clearly a matter that had good arguments on both sides, and was largely a matter of taste, preference, and former experience. Given that, we didn't see a good reason to change from the precedent set by C and C++. In this matter, as with numerous other aspects of the language, such as using curly braces for blocks, ending statements with a semi-colon, the syntax of loop statements, etc. we deliberately chose not to change what C and C++ used. This allowed the basics of the language to be familiar to C and C++ users, so that people can concentrate their attention on a smaller number of features where we felt we could provide significant additional value over C and C++.

I am now going to take a printout of this quote and use it to wipe the grime from underneath my desk.