It's a lot of writing and rewriting. I usually start off putting everything I think I want in the spec into a text document without worrying too much about logical consistency, then leave it overnight, add more things, leave it overnight, reshape, etc. It's important to take a long break after hitting a stopping point so that you gain some perspective. It's also good to solicit comments from your network, although that tends to be as difficult as finding code reviewers, so YMMV.
You should also write a reference implementation, because actually implementing something will expose a lot of problems in your assumptions, and it will give other implementers something to test against.
Generally, it's 3-6 months from inception to release of a smaller spec if you want it to be solid.
Actually, you could follow along with a couple of specs I wrote since I have a git history of them:
You should also write a reference implementation, because actually implementing something will expose a lot of problems in your assumptions, and it will give other implementers something to test against.
Generally, it's 3-6 months from inception to release of a smaller spec if you want it to be solid.
Actually, you could follow along with a couple of specs I wrote since I have a git history of them:
https://github.com/kstenerud/streamux/commits/master?after=7...
https://github.com/kstenerud/concise-encoding/commits/master...