How to return a string that includes a link to edit the post?

Okay … in the code I’m looking at, it’s supposed to show a certain string to a certain kind of logged-in user, at the end of certain kinds of posts. It does this through a function that returns the concatenated variables $content and $output, each of which the function constructs line-by-line.

Here’s the line that’s got me stumped: LINK

This is supposed to add to the $output variable a link to the current revision of the page, a link to the author of said revision, and a link so the user can edit the post. The problem is, it doesn’t work, because get_edit_post_link() does not actually echo the link. So what you get is just a link to that post, and a user who’s scratching her head.

The issue involving get_edit_post_link() is documented in this thread: LINK

So … any suggestions? How can I make this work? Or should I just scrap this part of the plugin? I already tried the suggestion in that thread, but embedding an echo() statement does not seem to work.