In the context of this thread, I believe even a digital computer would have to be rebuilt if the program is wrong... :P
Unless you typically salvage digital computers from the wreckage of a failed rocket test and stick it in the next prototype. If the FCC is wrong, kaboom.
Presumably they meant a program being discovered to be wrong before the computer was actually launched. And meant literally building a whole new computer, not just recompiling a program.
For the Apollo Guidance Computer, changing the program meant manually re-weaving wires through or around tiny magnet rings. A good part of the cost of the computer was the time spent painstakingly weaving the wires to store the program.
Yeah, though to be fair, some of the programs Apollo ran were on hand woven ROMs, so I may be making too fine a distinction. The program itself was built, not compiled. It if we are comparing with today, it would just be installed, not constructed.
I had assumed it meant more simple things like balanced balancing pneumatic or mechanical components that always put you at the the correct ratio sort of like a carburetor vs fuel injection.
Yes though they tend to be mechanically tuned. So like a pneumatic computer or will get tuned to operate into some range of inputs and you probably bench prototype it before you mass produce it
