Until you repeat that code pattern 10 times in one function. Then, do you reuse the same result variable? Or have 10 result variables each with a different name? Or put the whole thing in a block to limit that variable to the scope of that block?

In the past, I've done things like this:

  #define TRY(exp) \
     do { \
        int TRY_result = exp; \
        if (TRY_result != 0) \
           return TRY_result; \
     } while (0)

And then instead of the above I can just write:

     TRY(systemcall(“some string”, expression_argument(args), SC_MODE_1 | SC_MODE_DEFAULT)));

(Sometimes, one wants more complex error detection than just comparison to zero, or more complex error handling than just returning the result code. Often, it is possible to build a more complex version of the above TRY macro to meet those specific requirements.)