I'm a java programmer, and if I see something that:

• I don't know about
• or just want to find a method description without opening an ide
• or am on support

I type java [classname] into google, and there it is. If I try this crazy stunt for C# I'll come up with a whole heap of tutorials (how do I use it etc).

If I manage to get to MSDN, I have to wade through a page describing every .net technology to see how their syntax references the same object, and then I have to find the appropriate page from there ([class name] Constructor) for example.

This is even more pronounced, because I don't have Visual Studio, so I've got nothing to make it easier.

There must be something I'm missing or don't know...

• how does this situation work for Microsoft developers?
• how can I make my life easier/searches better?
  • are there techniques that work no matter what computer I'm on (e.g. require no computer setup/downloads)

Notes

It could be thought that java is just "java", but it's just that the java apis are only referenced/defined in the core language. For all the other languages on the JVM, it's assumed that you will just learn the correct syntax to use the java apis.

I presume that .Net only lists a whole heap of languages as the api classes are actually different and have different interfaces capabilities (or some approximation of this presumption).

Edit

While searching msdn works... in the java space I can type 'java [anyclass]' and it will generally be found... whether it's a java core api or a third party library