Subject pretty much says it.  In 1.3.3, `getopts ab:c var` works as
expected, but in 1.4.1, getopts ab:c var works whereas `getopts ab:c var`
doesn't.  Also, it might be nice to have a search engine on
http://www.netbsd.org/MailingLists to allow just searching the mailing 
list archives.  I haven't had the best luck trying to do so off of the
main search engine, and thereby don't have any way that I know of to
know whether this question has already been handled.  An example script  
on 1.4.1 follows:

Script started on Thu Feb  3 13:48:35 2000

Thu Feb  3   13:48:36
[1] eenke@scilab13:ttyp3:/scilab/laac/bin:$ getopts_example.tmp -a -b word
Before first getopts
OPTIND: 1
OPTARG: 
VAR: 

After first unbackquoted getopts
OPTIND: 2
OPTARG: 
retval: 0
VAR: a

After second backquoted getopts
OPTIND: 2
OPTARG: 
retval: 0
VAR: a

After third unbackquoted getopts
OPTIND: 4
OPTARG: word
retval: 0
VAR: b


**************************************
the shell script follows for reference:
**************************************

Thu Feb  3   13:48:54
[2] eenke@scilab13:ttyp3:/scilab/laac/bin:$ cat getopts_example.tmp
#!/bin/sh

echo "Before first getopts"
echo "OPTIND: $OPTIND"
echo "OPTARG: $OPTARG"
echo "VAR: $var"

getopts ab:c var
retval=$?
echo ""
echo "After first unbackquoted getopts"
echo "OPTIND: $OPTIND"
echo "OPTARG: $OPTARG"
echo "retval: $retval"
echo "VAR: $var"

`getopts ab:c var`
retval=$?
echo ""
echo "After second backquoted getopts"
echo "OPTIND: $OPTIND"
echo "OPTARG: $OPTARG"
echo "retval: $retval"
echo "VAR: $var"

getopts ab:c var
retval=$?
echo ""
echo "After third unbackquoted getopts"
echo "OPTIND: $OPTIND"
echo "OPTARG: $OPTARG"
echo "retval: $retval"
echo "VAR: $var"

Thu Feb  3   13:49:05
[3] eenke@scilab13:ttyp3:/scilab/laac/bin:$ exit
exit

Script done on Thu Feb  3 13:49:06 2000