Doohhh!! It's only just dawned on me what's happening in your suggested solution - within the context of the
eval, the code does indeed
die,
croak etc. hence 1 is returned from the eval iff the included code doesn't collapse in a heap - told you I was being rather myopic:-)
Thanx again for your insightful comments moritz.
At last, a user level that overstates my experience :-))