Capture CH numeric results?

[Tom Hawley tjh@xxxxxxxx]

The CHange command returns a value to the status line
indicating how many hits there were, for example "50
changes".

 Is there a way to capture this number so that it can
be used in an XPL program? I have a small, simple
program that changes inch-mark quotes to true quotes:

  ch /"W"/[264]W[265]/

where W is the "any character" wildcard. I want to add
a test for the number of " in the file, so that the
change won't execute if the number is odd (indicating
something other than matched pairs of ",) The test is
easy enough: ch /"/"/ returns the total number of ".
But how to capture it?

 Many thanks!

  Thomas J. Hawley / New York   tjh@xxxxxxxx
  ..................................................