Without giving away Richard's sweet golfing trick, the point we're trying to make is that functions usually return TWO pieces of information - a Return Value and an Exit (or Status) Code.
The Exit Code is zero if success, or the error code if there was an error. This is so you can tell what kind of error occurred and possibly take corrective action.
The return value is the data returned by the function - the answer to the question, so to speak. That's what my function was returning - 1=alive and 0=dead. I could have returned yes/no or alive/dead values, but 1/0 are easier to process by the software. In fact, the values Zero / Not Zero are more accurate, but 1/0 are easier examples.
Richard's change to my example is often used to simplify this yes/no type of logic, but won't work if you need a "real" answer, like a calculation result or name of a computer.
Glenn
PS - "golfing" is a term we use to reference shortening of code, thus reducing the number of (key) strokes. 
Edited by Glenn Barnas (2007-10-10 01:20 PM)
Edit Reason: Added PS
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