Procedure for Reply Comments in IEEE 802.16

General Principles

A Call for Reply Comments is initiated to gather responses to comments submitted during a letter ballot or similiar comment-collection process. The intent is for Working Group participants to use the procedure to input proposals as to the how the group should resolve the comment. Good reply comments are not written as a personal view (for example, "I think this comment should be accepted"). Instead, they should be in the form of proposed language to use as the group's official response, with detailed instructions to the editor (in the "Proposed Resolution" field) and a detailed explanation to the commenter (in the "Reason for Recommendation" field). Good reply comments form the basis of quick and detailed decisions during the comment resolution meeting.

Ideally, the Task Group developing a draft should attempt to ensure that all comments are reviewed before the meeting. For this purpose, an editor or a set of clause editors should be appointed. Additional reply comments from other participants will also be welcome.

The creator of each original comment should be offered the opportunity to generate a draft comment resolution and to lead the comment resolution process during discussion in the session (or appoint an alternative person to do so).

To create and submit reply comments:

  1. Obtain the comment database management tool Commentary.
  2. Unzip the Comment Report to get a ".USR" file, which will open in Commentary.
  3. Read the comments using Commentary. When you want to respond to a comment, fill out the following fields:
    4. You are justified in recommending rejection on grounds of incompleteness or lack of a specific change request.

    You may wish to keep track of your replies by checking the "Marked" box. If so, you should first run the scripts "Find Marked Records" and "Unmark Found Records" so that you begin with no records marked.

  4. When you are finished entering replies, find the records you have replied to. If you marked them, you can do this using the script "Find Marked Records". Otherwise, you can use "View/Find Mode".
  5. Put your name in the "Recommendation by" field of each reply {for a quick method, see Appendix at the end of this note.}
  6. Under Scripts, choose "Export Clause Editor's Proposals". Choose the file type "FileMaker Pro Runtime Files". Enter a file name of the form "LB#_reply_Name.USR", where "#"is the ballot number and "Name" is your name.
  7. Email the exported file as an attachment to the email address specified in the announcement, or upload it to the specified server location.

Appendix: Using "Replace" in Commentary

You can replace everything in a particular field over a batch of records. For example, clause editors might not want to type their name in the the "Recommendation by" field each time. Here is a solution to the problem illustrating the use of "Replace":
  1. Finish entering your data.
  2. Find the batch of records in which you want to replace a field.
  3. In browse mode, and put the cursor in the "Recommendation by" field.
  4. Under "Records", choose "Replace".
  5. Choose "Replace with calculated result".
  6. In the box, write, in quotation marks, your name. Click "OK".
  7. Click "Replace".
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