changing the return of node_commit()

I was wondering if it would be possible to change the node_commit() to return an error code instead of a page that needs to be displayed. i.e. if the node is successfully created return the nid of the node, otherwise return -1 for an error.

Basically what I have done in htmlarea is created a plugin that allows the inserting of images into the node, by way of a tag. If the user needs to upload the image from their system then they can upload it directly into the image module. so they can insert into the node. If this is successful then it will display the image as a preview or it will display the error.