ED 603: Technological
Capabilities
The University of Michigan / School of Education
Internet Tool Review - Fetch 
What is Fetch ? It is a computer software application that allows users to send information across the Internet from one computer to another. Sometimes one of the computers is a host computer at a University, and sometimes computers are networked within an organization (Intranet). The types of information transferred include text documents, graphical images, or even folders containing text and images. The process by which this information is handled is termed "File Transfer Protocol", or FTP. Fetch originated out of Dartmouth College.
Below is an annotated description of six of the most salient features of Fetch:
- BookMarks -- The job of Fetch is
to get your computer to access a particular directory on another
computer. Sometimes, the route or path taken has numerous steps
because Fetch may have to go through several sub directories and
folders to get to the right location. Fetch allows you to create a
"bookmark" which will remember the sequence of directories and
folders and files necessary to retrieve or to place a particular
document.
- Password Protected -- For
security reasons, Fetch will request a password from the user to
authenticate the user's request to access a particular directory
on a file server. Within the directory, there may be folders or
files which contain documents, images, or raw computer
language.
- File Format Options -- There are
many file formats which instruct computers how to code and decode
critical information that is transmitted.Some examples include
"Mac binary II", "binhex" and "text". Fortunately, users of Fetch
who do not have a strong technical background can view "Fetch
Help" from the pull-down menu under "Windows" to get definitions
and instructions for the appropriate file format use.
- Graphic Interface -- Fetch uses
"pull-down" menus that are common to Macintosh Interface Designs.
The advantage of this system is that a user does not have to
memorize a series of computer commands to perform basic operations
that are described below. Without the interface, a user would use
UNIX commands on a Telnet connection, for example.
- Remote Operations -- Fetch
allows the user to remotely change the name of a folder or file
as well as delete a file or folder. One can accomplish file
maintenance in this fashion.
- Directory -- Fetch will keep a
"running log" of directory locations the user visits. This
feature is nice because one can easily retrace their tracks to
a particular directory of interest to either retrieve or to
place documents.
- Post Processing -- Some software that is downloaded has been compressed due to the large volume of information transmitted. Fetch can be configured to automatically decompress such software and open it up on the computer desktop. These downloaded files have the suffix ".sea" which stands for "self extracting file". Fetch will recognize when one of the files is being transferred and apply the appropriate computer code to accomplish this procedure.
- Remote Operations -- Fetch
allows the user to remotely change the name of a folder or file
as well as delete a file or folder. One can accomplish file
maintenance in this fashion.
The URL for information regarding fetch: http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/fetch.html
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