>Actually, not arbitrary. In most languages, that is the main distinction between functions and procedures. VFP is unusual in that it's the call, not the definition, that determines whether you're using a function or a procedure.
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>Tamar
I know that that is the main distinction, in Pascal for instance. But I was not referring to languages as they are, but as they should be, IMNSHO. In other words, why even make such a distinction, if the only difference is the existence, or not, of a return value.
For example, in a language that makes that distinction, you might write a procedure to do a specific task, and then you have to change it to a function, just because you figure that you need a return value to tell whether the process ran successfully.
In C, and languages derived from it (like Java), they simply don't make such an arbitrary distinction.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
