I just came across this post from Bozhidar Batsov about describe-symbol. It’s a help command, bound to Ctrl+h o, that combines the results of describe-function and describe-variable. The putative advantage of this (newish) command is that a single key shortcut serves to get information on both functions and variables.
My first thought, when reading Batsov’s post was that the command was a real win but then I started wondering whether muscle memory would keep me using the bindings, Ctrl+h f and Ctrl+h v for describe-function and describe-variable instead. It turns out that we have an answer to that question.
As I was preparing this post, I discovered that I’d written about the describe-symbol command back in 2022. Back then, I also thought it was a good replacement but I don’t believe I’ve ever used it since. Indeed, I’d forgotten all about it. Still, if you’re new to Emacs and haven’t developed muscle memory for the old commands, it could be a win. If you’re a new user or not as set in your ways as I am, this single command is only one thing to remember instead of two.