I think that this is not correct. From the vim help file:
:q[uit] Quit the current window. Quit Vim if this is the last window. This fails when changes have been made and Vim refuses to |abandon| the current buffer, and when the last file in the argument list has not been edited. If there are other tab pages and quitting the last window in the current tab page the current tab page is closed |tab-page|.
I do think I over simplified the answer the first time around. However, all the details of vim documentation for the different types of quits, closing/hiding windows, closing/hiding/unloading buffers is a bit overwhelming and probably unnecessary for this specific problem. As noted in the documentation :q targets a Vim window (view) in a tab-page - if you only have one, Vim quits. An easy example of the behavior within vim is when you use :h - in that case :q closes the help but not Vim). How that related to Vimpulse & the different states of emacs I am not sure. Anyhow I really would like to be able to :wq without loosing emacs. I
don't think one can thing that this can only be achieved by :w followed by :bd
So please advise about how to setup so that :q quits the current buffer, preferably without changing my window configuration.
While others have already made other suggestions, to write & close a buffer, :w | bd suffices, though it uses more keystrokes than :wq.