how should it work?

[ACW at SCRC-TENEX]

I think c-Q Abort should stick an Abort in the buffer.
Reason: It's the only way to put an abort in the buffer,
and if you really didn't want the abort in the buffer
you can rub it out.  So getting caught in a c-Q is
not an unrecoverable catastrophe even though there
is no way to abort from it.

If we took the other stance, that ABort should always
work, then we would have to provide a separate command
(m-X Insert An Abort) to do it.  This is cludgier.

   ---Allan