Inconsistent moves

Question

I have the following mappings in my ~/.vimrc:

" Add new lines and spaces without changing the mode
nmap <leader>j mvo<Esc>`v
nmap <leader>k mvO<Esc>`v
nmap <leader>h i<space><esc>l
nmap <leader>l a<space><esc>h

All shortcuts work, but I can't get consistent behavior with leader+h/l commands.
For example, here is the word and cursor is at h:

Floccinaucinihilipilification

When we press leader+l, one space gets instantly added to the right and cursor stays at h:

Floccinaucinih ilipilification

Pressing u moves cursor one position to the right, which is unexpected.
Next, when we press leader+h, space gets added to the left with approximately 3 seconds delay:

Floccinaucini hilipilification

However, this time pressing u leaves cursor at h as expected.

NVIM v0.2.2
Any clues?

Answer 1

Actually the behavior you are observing is the expected one:

• When you delete some text and undo the deletion, u brings you back to the beginning of the deleted text.
• When you write some text and undo the addition, u bring you back to the end of the added text.

Both of your mapping <leader>h and <leader>l add a new character. When you undo what they did you will get to the end of the deleted text no matter what motions you used before the undo. I think what confused you is that you changed the position of your cursor with the final h and l motions in your mappings.

You can replace your mappings by the following to convince yourself that the behavior is the expected one:

nmap <leader>h i<space><esc>0
nmap <leader>l a<space><esc>0

So as far as I know your mappings are working properly and you can't do much to change the behavior of u.