You can pass values to the form via the INIT as parameters and then save to a property. What I do is the following:

In the method/procedure that will call the form:

loMethod = CREATEOBJECT("Empty")
ADDPROPERTY(loMethod,"StringVal","")
ADDPROPERTY(loMethod,"IntVal",0)
llReturnOK = .F.
DO FORM MyForm WITH loMethod TO llReturnOK
IF llReturnOK
     ** Process the return values in the loMethod object properties
ENDIF

Then in the INIT method of the form (I define a custom property "oReturn" in the form):

LPARAMETERS poReturn
thisform.oReturn = poReturn
...

Now the called form can store values in the object:

thisform.oReturn.StringVal = "Return string"
thisform.oReturn.IntVal = 9

I still use the RETURN in the UNLOAD event to return whether the user entered data or cancelled:

RETURN thisform.UserEntry

I create UserEntry as a custom property and initialize to .F. -- then in the "Save" click event method, I set the values as appropriate and save .T. to thisform.UserEntry. This gives the calling program notification of user entered data or whether they cancelled.