Using <alt> as alternative to <esc> doesn't work when popup menus are open

Question

I'm in the habit of just hitting alt+[whatever] when I want to exit of insert mode (esc is just too far away - it's the one thing I can't for the life of me understand about vi/vim/etc.). This works, if I remember right, because the terminal translates this as an esc char, and then the following char.

Now I'm using a plugin for python. I have little code completion popup menus while I'm typing all the time. If I hit alt-j, or whatever, while a popup menu is open it closes the menu, types j and doesn't exit insert mode. Hitting esc always works. This is really messing with my muscle memory. Any idea why the alt trick doesn't work in this case?

Answer 1

Ok, I guess I should not rely on how alt is interpreted? Formalizing my alt-movement as escape habit as a mapping gave me back consistent behavior. I put the following in vimrc:

" exit by using alt-movement
imap <m-j> <esc>j
imap <m-k> <esc>k
imap <m-h> <esc>h
imap <m-l> <esc>l