avoid error masking

Don’t use mechanisms that suppress or hide errors unless absolutely necessary for the application flow. Error masking makes debugging difficult and can hide important issues from users and developers.

Problematic patterns to avoid:

• Using pcall() just to ignore errors: “pcall masks errors”
• Adding silent! to commands unnecessarily: “silent with ‘!’ silences errors…”
• Using fragile error checking like vim.v.shell_error

Better alternatives:

• Use vim.schedule() if you need to prevent errors from disrupting flow
• Use proper error handling utilities like t.pcall_err for testing
• Use vim.system():wait() instead of vim.fn.system() to avoid fragile error handling
• Let errors propagate naturally unless you have a specific reason to handle them

Example:

-- Bad: Masks the actual error
local ok, _ = pcall(api.nvim_command, 'edit')

-- Better: Use proper error handling utility
eq(':edit command in prompt buffer throws error',
   t.pcall_err(api.nvim_command, 'edit'))

-- Bad: Silences all errors
nvim_command('silent! edit `=__fname`')

-- Better: Let errors show unless specifically needed
nvim_command('edit `=__fname`')

Only suppress errors when you have a clear reason and a plan for handling the error condition appropriately.