Prevent cursor from moving back one character on insert mode exit

Question

...how would you do it?

task for extra credit: figure out a way to force vim to refresh the cursor position immediately after exiting insert mode

Answer 1

Based on Nathan Neff's comment, the best approach I've found is

autocmd InsertLeave * :normal `^
set virtualedit=onemore

autocmd moves the cursor back to where it was when insert mode ended (i.e. one forward compared to the default).

virtualedit makes it act consistently at end of line (so it can be one forward of the last character on the line).