[SOLVED] When to use core.async in Clojure?

When to use core.async in Clojure?

When should I use Clojure's core.async library, what kind of applications need that kinda async thing?

Clojure provides 4 basic mutable models like refs, agents, atoms and thread locals/vars. Can't these mutable references provide in any way what core.async provides with ease?

Could you provide real world use cases for async programming?

How can I gain an understanding of it so that when I see a problem, it clicks and I say "This is the place I should apply core.async"?

Also we can use core.async in ClojureScript which is a single threaded environment, what are the advantages there (besides avoiding callback hell)?

Solution

You may wish to read this:

Clojure core.async Channels Introductory blog by Rich Hickey
Mastering Concurrent Processes with core.async Brave Clojure entry

The best use case for core.async is ClojureScript, since it allows you to simulate multi-threaded programming and avoid Callback Hell.

In JVM Clojure, core.async can also by handy where you want a (lightweight) producer-consumer architecure. Of course, you could always use native Java queues for that, as well.