Yes, as I'm reading further into the book I am coming to understand more
about the differences between the ref, atom, and agent types. I am
beginning to see that swap! is not an alter on atoms, etc. The way the book
presents the information, though, strongly suggests parallels.
Consistency is a
I'd say only Rich Hickey can really answer these questions, but here is one
possible explanation.
These functions are not equivalent. Just like 'send' on an agent has
fundamental differences with 'swap!', 'alter' has fundamental differences
with both. There is also some similarity, of course: in a
>
> why Clojure chose to name functions operating on refs and atoms so
> differently
swap! is not an alter on atoms. And vice versa.
reset! is not a ref-set on atoms. And vice versa.
The analogous functions names would make remembering which is which easier.
Are you having trouble remembering
