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Designers should favour allowing users to undo a delete operation over confirming it (e.g. GMail lets you undo e-mail deletion instead of asking if you are sure).

What would you call such operation in general? I have used an undoable operation term but then I realized that undoable really means an operation that can not be done.

I have came up with cancellable operation then but I feel it is not the same. Now it looks like the operation has already been started and can be interrupted by cancelling it - which is not true.

So - what would you call an operation you can undo?

Community
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fracz
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    rollback is what programmers often call this event. execution of rollback means that you are going to undo everything that you have done. on the other hand, we also have commit, with which we would permanently save the changes that we have done. – Archie Azares Jun 08 '16 at 07:48
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    But "rollback" & "commit" would not be understood by lay people. – TrevorD Jun 08 '16 at 11:22
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    Are you wanting a term understandable to lay people, or only for programmers? – TrevorD Jun 08 '16 at 11:26
  • My intention is to find a term I can use among programmers. This means for example giving an appropriate name for a variable representing such operation so I need adjective+operation pair. – fracz Jun 08 '16 at 14:08
  • Note that undoable technically only means "that which can be undone". It might be mistaken to mean "that which cannot be done", but if you're only looking for technical accuracy then look no further. – talrnu Jun 08 '16 at 16:41
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    @talrnu (Undo + able) and (Un + doable) are two origins for the word. So it has two technically correct meanings, not just one. – NVZ Jun 08 '16 at 16:44
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    In mathematics, we may use the term "invertible" for something that can be undone. – GEdgar Jun 09 '16 at 01:15
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    You can say it is "reversible" or "invertible". – mathreadler Jun 11 '16 at 08:57
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    Pending? Staged? – user116032 Jun 13 '16 at 02:53
  • It's true that "undoable" is syntactically ambiguous. But the meaning un-doable is already expressed well enough by "impossible", so I think programmers will reliably understand it as undo-able. I certainly do. – Kilian Foth Jun 13 '16 at 09:40

11 Answers11

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When you undo an operation in Gmail, for instance, the state of the mail program is reverted by reversing the most recent user action. Therefore, one suggestion to describe your "undo-able" set of operations is:

Reversible — M-W

able to be changed back to an earlier or original state
"Fortunately, the damage is reversible."

or revertible — Wiktionary

NVZ
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    Also in chemistry: reversible reaction – Ben Voigt Jun 08 '16 at 22:02
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    To put this back in context: "Designers should favor operations that can be reversed over those that can merely be canceled." As OP suspects, the word "canceled" is not a good synonym for "reversed" or "undone", but it makes a good antonym for "confirmed". – Gary Botnovcan Jun 09 '16 at 05:36
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    "Reversible" has a good solid foundation in thermodynamics. "A reversible process is a process where the effects of following a thermodynamic path can be undone, without increasing entropy, by exactly reversing the path." – Jamie Hanrahan Jun 11 '16 at 04:27
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    Thank you. Finally, I have chosen the revertible because then I can say I revert the operation. I would have to reverse the operation if it was reversible. – fracz Jun 11 '16 at 11:15
  • If someone is interested in the outcome, here it is. – fracz Jun 11 '16 at 11:59
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You said:

I have used an undoable operation term but then I realized that undoable really means an operation that can not be done.

Interestingly enough, quite a few online dictionaries actually mention undoable in its "can be undone" meaning — Your Dictionary, Collins, TFD, Wiktionary

In some cases the context will be able to tell which version of undoable you're using, but in others, like the one you've quoted, you'll have to use an alternative (and I think that NVZ's reversible is a nice one).

Edit after comment:

Unundoable - Yourdictionary, Wiktionary, Wordnik, Google Books

•Not undoable (unable to be undone).

Azami
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    Sweet! I will use that all the time now! – Kimball Jun 09 '16 at 10:52
  • @Kimball: Do that. You might even try a "ununundoable" as a synonym of "undoable" in its "can't be undone" meaning. I'll support you! – Azami Jun 09 '16 at 10:56
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    Certainly in the software industry "undoable operation" means to me an operation that can be undone. – abligh Jun 09 '16 at 11:52
  • I like undoable as an answer to the O.P.'s question. As for unundoable, I think I might prefer irrevocable or permanent. – J.R. Jun 09 '16 at 22:11
  • Not reversible is much simpler to understand compare to unundoable. Double negation always get me annoyed. – Dio Phung Jun 09 '16 at 22:30
  • @J.R and Dio Phung, I was merely stating that unundoable had entries in dictionaries, but there is literally no way I would ever use this, be it in a written or oral conversation. – Azami Jun 10 '16 at 14:48
  • @MadWard - That's cool, but your amended answer didn't say anything one way or the other, so I guess we felt compelled to say something in the comments. By the way, if you reredited your answer, then I might delete my comment – though I'd have to think about it first, because deleting a comment is an unundoable action ;-) – J.R. Jun 10 '16 at 14:59
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To add to the list of "re-" words:

revocable

meaning "capable of being revoked or cancelled."

This also has the neat antonym of "irrevocable" for those changes which can't be cancelled.

origimbo
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    This doesn't fit the context. To cancel or revoke is not to undo, rather it's to cease doing or to stop before doing. Doesn't really fit the context of cleaning up the damages already done, e.g. undo. – FatalSleep Jun 08 '16 at 11:23
  • @FatalSleep I'm confused. Isn't your description of revoke pretty much exactly what the original poster describes? – origimbo Jun 08 '16 at 12:04
  • No, this is an issue with the OP. In GMail when you click undo, two things happen, you cancel sending the email, but you undo the send operation. GMail doesn't send until after the undo message disappears, so an email can't technically be undone, rather cancelled. In which case the OP isn't referring to undoing sending the email, but rather undoing the operation of clicking send to trigger sending the email. – FatalSleep Jun 08 '16 at 12:42
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    In that case revoke doesn't work, you can't revoke an operation that's already been completed. You can only revoke an operation that is already in action. If the operation has been completed, then it has to be undone. – FatalSleep Jun 08 '16 at 12:44
  • @FatalSleep you're wrong. – Martin Smith Jun 08 '16 at 15:44
  • @MartinSmith explain how I'm wrong then. – FatalSleep Jun 08 '16 at 15:59
  • @FatalSleep you're just asserting something to be true with no basis. The phrase "irrevocable damage" is very common and doesn't tie in with your assertion. In databases you can revoke permissions after granting them or a security certificate can be revoked after issuing it. – Martin Smith Jun 08 '16 at 16:03
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    @MartinSmith semantically to revoke is to deny change, not to undo change. By denying change you don't allow change to take place, by undoing change you're reversing the change and the effects thereof. So it doesn't make sense to think of revoke and undo as directly interchangeable. – FatalSleep Jun 08 '16 at 16:28
  • @FatalSleep the phrase "irrevocable damage" means damage that cannot be repaired. Not damage that wasn't prevented before it occurred. – Martin Smith Jun 09 '16 at 09:19
  • @MartinSmith I have to side with FatalSleep here. To me revoke means to invalidate something that is ongoing or about to happen, or to invalidate a statement, not to reverse an action that already happened. I also searched for the phrase "irrevocable damage" and it didn't seem very common to me. In fact, most of the results are from a quote from a politician. – Cave Johnson Jun 10 '16 at 00:15
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    Given that the context is in computer systems, there is a significant semantic difference between "undo" and "revoke" when you consider the state of a system. When an operation is "undone" the state of the system is reverted to the point before the operation was performed. So, if you delete some text in a Word document, then undo the delete, the text isn't re-typed, rather the state is reverted so that the deletion never happened. If I issue someone a driver's license and then revoke it, the fact is still that they had a license. If I undo it then it is as if they never held one. – Paulw11 Jun 10 '16 at 01:12
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In the world of Information technology, such thing is called rollback

Rollback

the act of reversing or undoing something

The word was originally use as a method in database management system (DBMS) which has been adopted by some IT professionals in the field as a general terminology in the world of Information Technology.

Archie Azares
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    If undo is to rollback, then undoable is to what? – NVZ Jun 08 '16 at 08:23
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    rollback is usually a command used to specify the act of undoing something. When use in a sentence, instead of saying "Is this command undoable?" we would just say "Can this command be rolled back?" It's just a matter of how you use it. by the way, some use it as Rollback-able. I've seen some of thesis in Information Technology use that word in their documentations. Although I do not know if that is a correct terminology. – Archie Azares Jun 08 '16 at 08:43
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    Ok, but can you say rollbackable operation? I think I'm looking for an adjective here. – fracz Jun 08 '16 at 08:52
  • In that case, I'd say you must use reversible/undoable operation. You does not necessarily need to use the general term when you could always use words that are synonymous to the general term. I'd say that there is nothing wrong with undoable operations in your quote, but as for the "general term that you were asking, I'd call it rollback. meaning of the words would vary on how we use it in a sentence or phrase. – Archie Azares Jun 08 '16 at 09:06
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    This answer is plain wrong, sorry. – talrnu Jun 08 '16 at 16:39
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    @talrnu Merely asserting that something is 'wrong' does not advance the issue one iota. Please explain. – TrevorD Jun 08 '16 at 16:45
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    The question explicitly asks, "what would you call an operation you can undo?". Rollback does not describe an operation you can undo, it describes an operation you can perform to undo another operation. "This action can be rolled back" is not a single word, and cannot be distilled to a short idiomatic phrase. In summary, this answer is only tangentially related to the question. – talrnu Jun 08 '16 at 17:48
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    i did mention the word "rollback-able" on the comments? didn't I? – Archie Azares Jun 09 '16 at 01:27
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    (re your last comment) Your answer should be in the answer post: that's what it's there for. Comments are ephemeral by design. – msh210 Jun 09 '16 at 16:20
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    "rollback-able" doesn't come up in google search or ngram viewer, so it's almost certainly made up - it's not an idiom. That being said, it might suffice as an answer if you can justify why it's better than the highly similar word "undoable", which does exist and which the asker has already expressed is an unacceptable answer. You'll also want to address its grammatical inaccuracy, as the "-able" suffix you're tacking on implies that "rollback" is a verb, when it is in fact a noun - "noun-able" is more often used to describe something you can turn into the noun. – talrnu Jun 09 '16 at 18:44
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In the VFX and CGI fields, we call something that you can undo "non-destructive", as in: This program lets us use a non-destructive workflow.

This is in contrast to destructive, where actions are permanent or semi-permanent. While non-destructive is common in those fields, and I believe it also sees use in programming and audio fields, it's not commonly used in regular language. However, it is a very accurate term, and in my opinion at least, is intuitive, when I first heard the term, I never had to ask what it meant.

Space Ostrich
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  • That's a tangent. A non-destructive filter on an image leaves the bitmap intact, yet both a destructive and non-destructive filter could be undone. – Andrew G Jun 13 '16 at 10:28
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while revertible is probably the most precise fit, reversible is a much more common word and nearly as precise.

from an etymological perspective, the word undo is unusual because the prefix "un-" generally implies that something has not been done yet (e.g. "undone", "undoable"), while "de-" or "dis-" prifix is more commonly used to indicate the reversion or removal of a trait. e.g. "unconstructed" vs "deconstructed", "uncoupled" vs "decoupled, "unproven" vs "disproven", "uninfected" vs "disinfected". so, theoretically, the word you should be seeking is "dedoable" or "disdoable", but sadly there is no precident for either word.

teldon james turner
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An interesting form that is uncommon in the general sense, but is very common in mathematics and signal processing, is linear or invertible.

If you taken an audio signal for example, and increase the volume, you can get the original signal back by decreasing the volume of the amplified signal.

However, in real world applications, if you increase the volume of a signal too much, you clip the signal, and lose information. You can't undo such an operation unless you have a copy of the original signal stored somewhere.

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Cloud
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    Linear is not necessarily invertible. – Kimball Jun 09 '16 at 09:07
  • @Kimball That is correct: linearity only implies invertibility iff there is a linear companion operation, ie: S ◦ T =I_U <==> T ◦ S = I_V. Thank you for pointing this out. – Cloud Jun 09 '16 at 15:43
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From the mathematics perspective, such an operation can be considered bijective or capable of bijection.

As an example, encryption is bijective - for a given input, you can map it to a single encrypted result, which than then be perfectly undone back to the given input and ONLY the given input.

Contrast this with a one-way function, such as hashing - the operation cannot be undone.

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    While your reasoning sounds solid, I'm pretty certain that no lay person understand what this means without thorough explanation. Personally, I know about the word "bijection", but to me that's a specific kind of math function which has nothing to do with undoability of actions. – Mr Lister Jun 11 '16 at 13:03
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Just for interest's sake, here's a couple of nice words that work for non technical situations when you can more or less do something without yet fully committing to it:

(In your technical sense I would agree that reversible works best.)

hippietrail
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You could use transaction as in transactional operation or mutation as in mutable operation. A database transaction is capable of being reversed. Bank transactions can be reversed. Mutable means adj. Capable of or subject to change or alteration.; adj. Prone to frequent change; inconstant: mutable weather patterns.

Chloe
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Agreed with reversible but as another option (from M-W):

Alterable

capable of being readily changed

Eilia
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