Fast word count function in Vim

Question

I am trying to display a live word count in the vim statusline. I do this by setting my status line in my .vimrc and inserting a function into it. The idea of this function

Answer 1

I'm new to Vim scripting, but I might suggest

function WordCount()
    redir => l:status
    exe "silent normal g\"
    redir END
    return str2nr(split(l:status)[11])
endfunction

as being a bit cleaner since it does not overwrite the existing status line.

My reason for posting is to point out that this function has a puzzling bug: namely, it breaks the append command. Hitting A should drop you into insert mode with the cursor positioned to the right of the final character on the line. However, with this custom status bar enabled it will put you to the left of the final character.

Anyone have any idea what causes this?