easy, hard

[Don Reble]

> Is there an understanding among OEIS users about how easy is 'easy' 
> and how hard is 'hard'? ... I'm ambivalent about whether that should
> include programming time as well as running time.

I doubt that there is such an understanding. Furthermore, one
can cheat to get either answer. To illustrate:

I just computed the next term of A048824. Twice. My first
program was a bit crude, and needed over an hour to get there.
After the mandatory head-thwack, I improved the algorithm:
this time it took maybe ten minutes. But now it occurs to me,
that there's a much better algorithm, both quicker to code, and
faster to run. (Here's a BASIC version:)

    10  print "A048824:"
    20  print 3, 7, 23, 347, 1439, 10780559

If only I had known that algorithm.

Anyway, one can code slowly and stupidly, to make a problem
look hard; or quickly and psychically, to make it easy.
Perhaps there's a better way to ask the question?
--
Don Reble       djr at nk.ca