What is the ending-in-y version of 'atomic'?
I don't know the correct way to explain this type of word in English, but it's similar to the word 'specificity'. You can describe something as specific using this word. I'm looking for a similar way to use 'atomic'. My intended usage of 'atomic' here is to describe the nature of an operation in programming: To perform an operation atomically, means that this operation completes 100% without being interrupted. It means the operation is guaranteed to be complete.
When discussing the property of being atomic with my coworkers, I wish to use it somewhat like: "This gives you the guarantee of atomicity". I know that 'atomicity' isn't a word (at least according to Google), but I hope that gives you an idea of what I'm trying to do.
What is the correct way of using 'atomic' in this way? Or am I maybe going down the wrong path here?
Atomicity is a perfectly cromulent word. It is often used in the context of database transactions1,2,3 or thread safety4,5. For example, from 3 :
Atomicity takes individual operations and turns them into an all-or-nothing unit of work, succeeding if and only if all contained operations succeed.
Wikipedia recognizes separate meanings for programming and databases which may be why there is a bit of an argument about what it means.
But there is a more important point. People on this site may like "cromulence" and "atomicity" but your co-workers may not. If you have to ask here about the word and if we can't agree about its meaning and usage then you can be pretty certain it will not be clear to your intended readers. Say
This guarantees that the process will be atomic.
Atomicity is fine, but I think it's important to understand atomicity and atomic operations. They aren't guaranteed to succeed, they are simply guaranteed to not complete partially. They can (and do) still fail, but it is an all or nothing operation.
Atomic is used to describe an individual operation that is as small as it can possibly be - not made up of components itself. An example in programming would be to fetch the read/write status of a file. That operation is atomic. But you can still fail to fetch the status (I/O Exception). Or, you can succeed (this file is read-only, this one is read-write). You cannot, however, partially succeed (this file can be read, but we don't know if it can be written).
So, be sure to use "atomicity" correctly. If you use it to state that something is guaranteed to succeed, you will be setting incorrect expectations and incorrectly using the word.
The phrase
This gives you the guarantee of atomicity
is perfectly valid, I have used it, or something very similar, on many occasions.
However, I've never heard "atomically" used like this in the U.K. tech industry.
Instead, I would say
To perform an atomic operation, means...