An
InventionRequiredTask is a task that contains at least one element that has never been done before and that nobody knows how to do. The effort to complete such a task is, by construction, unpredictable -- because "inventing" is a creative act that is, in a technical context, highly constrained.
Sometimes an
InventionRequiredTask can take hours -- and sometimes years.
InventionRequiredTask is not a synonym for "long" or "hard". The phrase characterizes the predictability of the task, not its duration or effort.
In this context, it is used in contrast to "
StraightForwardTask" or "
TrivialTask".
Writing a module that generates source code in an arbitrary language from a pattern definition is an
InventionRequiredTask.