The logical structure for comments was developed through conversations with editors involved in the standards development process. It became apparent that three categorizations would be useful. The first grouping factor was type and its values were ``undefined'', ``comment'' or ``objection.'' All newly arrived notes are assigned to the ``undefined'' category. Upon editorial review a judgment is made to place a comment into the general category which indicates that the reader had made an observation. The objection label is applied by an editor to indicate that the note requires resolution since it raised an issue of disagreement.
The second grouping factor identifies the status of the comment and may take on the values of ``open'', ``pending'', or ``resolved.'' No default assignment is made and editorial judgment is exercised to determine which level to choose.
The final grouping identifies the authority for final disposition of the comment and the possible values are ``editor'', ``author'', ``focus group'', and ``plenary.'' An editor is responsible for assigning a matter for handling by one of these groups. Because multiple people may be involved in resolving a comment or objection through a number of phases, a transaction logging procedure in CASCADE tracks all actions on a comment.
The logical structure for CASCADE documents (including comments) was implemented to allow fifteen document descriptors. Three of these have been usedaat this time. Each of these descriptors is user-definable. The set of document types includes primary text, such as a standards chapter, several comment types including open, pending and resolved, remote URL links, among others. The mapping of document type to button display color is also under the control of the user.