My GUI editors quit on me every time I mistype Ctrl+Q. I don't really see the difference.

Since I switch between Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux hosts, accidentally typing ctrl-c when I meant to type cmd-c (copy outside of Terminal) isn't such an infrequent error. I'm thankful that ctrl-c isn't mapped to quit without saving.

Well, and my GUI editors don't respond to single-letter commands. It would violate my expectations of their UIs if they did. Similarly, in vim, I expect ctrl+q to send an XON signal to my terminal emulator...not to quit my editor.

They're different programs with different UI conventions. I don't expect them to act the same. And I especially don't expect vim to change, after having 25 years of its own precedent and an additional 16 through vi.

I would think that in both the ^Q and ^C case, the editor in question is capable of prompting "Really exit? (Y/n)" or something to that effect.

Right... I think the point is that this behavior is not preferable.

I do consider that a misfeature, especially since Ctrl+W and Ctrl+A are one key away and often carry commonly-used commands.

I have an entire section of my emacs file devoted to unbinding keys that accidentally close my editor.