I do think Zig is better for this kind of thing.

const ret = try do_thing();

if( ret ) | result | {
   do_something_with_result(result);
}

The try keyword returns any error up; the if-unwrap works with what came out of a successful call. Normally you wouldn’t have both, of course.

do_thing would be defined as a union of an error (a distinct kind of type, so it can be reasoned about with try, catch and unwrapping) and the wrapped return value.