On 05 May 97, Stein-Ivar Johnsen wrote to John Giannini:
 SJ> In a message of , John Giannini (1:119/50) writes :
 JG>> -  What can I do about this?  I like the way 1.73 displayed these long
 JG>> file descriptions.  I don't think the bottom example is *supposed* to
 JG>> be how  they are displayed.  What can I do about this?
 SJ> Nothing, it has to be fixed in Opus..
.........Which is one of the reasons I have decided to go back to 1.73a.  And 
I am REALLY bummed about having to do that.
I have waited for 6 years for a new version of Opus.  When it finally comes 
out, the two things I thought FOR SURE would be in any new Opus aren't there. 
Opus still doesn't recognize any V.FC or V.34+ speeds.  If a caller is online 
at 24000 baud, Opus still calculates d/l time of a file as if the caller were 
at 2400 baud.  And Opus still doesn't have file tagging - a feature virtually 
every other BBS on the planet has.
Opus still has what Trev calls a "mite" too, but to me, it is a MAJOR danger 
- Opus still allows anyone to download any file they can see, as long as they 
have access to at least ONE directory with the download command in it, and as 
long as they list what they want as the 2nd, 3td or 4th file of a batch file 
download.  A "mite" it might be, but I carry adult files online, and it means 
KIDS can call my board and, if they know the secret, download any adult file 
they want.  Of course, I have had it suggested to me that one way to deal 
with this legal danger is to get rid of all my adult files.  Especially since 
in today's conservative climate, with a trigger-happy government just waiting 
to go after BBSes with adult materials, just *having* adult fles is 
dangerous! But I'm one of those old nefarious patriot types who tells the 
government to go screw themselves if they want to try to tell me what to do, 
and I'll not take off the adult file sections because some paper pusher in 
Washington tells me to.  So the danger remains - and it's a danger I 
shouldn't have to deal with but for the "mite" in Opus that should have been 
fixed.
All these problems are carry-overs from 1.73a, but 1.79 has actually 
INTRODUCED new problems - like it's inability to correctly display long file 
descriptions of more than 3 lines.  Opus 1.79 also takes your phone "off 
hook" when you exit it, but I liked it better when it didn't do that.  At 
least, there should be something in Opus.ctl that allows a sysop to decide if 
they want to enable that feature or not.  For me, I am often out in DOS doing 
something, and since I have an actual phone connected to my modem, well, upon 
a call coming in, I can rapidly quit whatever I am doing and run the BBS 
allowing that caller online.  With the new feature of Opus forcing the modem 
off-hook, callers would get a busy if they call while I am doing something 
else in DOS (I have no multitasker), so to me that is a disadvantage.
So it's back to 1.73a, until and if maybe 1.80 or 2.0 comes out.  Not to take 
anything away from all the WORK and agony that went into 1.79.  It's not that 
I don't appreciate that!  It's just that 1.79.x is an incomplete work which 
introduces, in some cases, new bugs that 1.73a didn't have.
--- GoldED 2.50
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