Should you correct production mistakes?

[Eric Smith]

Tony Duell wrote:
 > I could trivially desolder the IC, straighten the pin, and solder it 
back
 > properly. But should I? What would others do?

Had we found any problem analogous to that in the PDP-1 restoration, 
where the machine operated correctly despite a manufacturing defect, I'm 
sure we would have had a debate on whether to fix it.  I think my own 
opinion in that case would be that we should leave it alone, but tag the 
module (paper tag attached with a short loop of string) and document the 
issue in the system logbook.

For something that isn't considered a museum artifact, I'd be more 
inclined to fix it.

When we do fix PDP-1 modules, we mark the replaced components and log 
that as well.  Since the component marking is intended to indicate that 
the component is not original, if we were just correcting an improperly 
installed component, we probably wouldn't mark it, but would still log it.

Eric
(not speaking for the PDP-1 Restoration Team or the Computer History Museum)