Undo is a user-interface operation that reverses the most recently executed command or action. Its defining parameters are: (1) temporal locality — it operates on the immediate past, typically the last N actions in a stack; (2) reversibility — each action recorded can be inverted to restore the prior state; (3) iteration — undo can be applied repeatedly, walking backward through the action history. It persists as a standard feature in text editors, graphic programs, operating systems, and virtually all interactive software, first introduced in Xerox Alto (1973) and Codex. [formal: undo | substrate: behavior | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
undo
Undo is a user-interface operation that reverses the most recently executed command or action. Its defining parameters are: (1) temporal locality — it operates on the immediate past, typically the last N actions in a stack; (2) reversibili…
Definition
Why it is in scope
a human-made interface construct that provides reversibility of the most recent action, implemented as a stack of operations that can be walked backward. Built to persist across software applications as a standard interaction primitive since the 1970s.
Names and aliases
- undoen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84DEPENDS_ON →
Undo operates by storing prior states and reversing to them. Remove memory (the concept of storing and recalling past states) and undo stops operating — it has no mechanism to work without it. This is object-level, not meta-level: memory is undo's actual mechanism, not just a shared condition of being a concept.
- cmr98h9fl008khcxfwebiv8rnINSTANCE_OF →
undo is a specific kind of tool — it extends human cognitive capacity to reverse actions, functioning as an artifact that augments memory and decision-making. Under Law 11c's broad sense, 'tool' covers any artifact extending human capacity, and undo is precisely that: the capacity to undo mistakes.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 6, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 958b73fc4947754a0c5bd6f7d23ae2cc7d2fa6287c0d901f0d1ee829e9bd5c54