Why is GenServer communication generally synchronous?

[peerreynders]

@stefanchrobot

Why is that?

GenServer docs: "handle_cast ... should be used sparingly" Why?

During my recent query with regard to “Functional Web Development with Elixir, OTP, and Phoenix”, Lance Halvorson kindly directed my attention toward the GenServer Documentation: handle_call/3 must be used for synchronous requests. This should be the default choice as waiting for the server reply is a useful backpressure mechanism. handle_cast/2 must be used for asynchronous requests, when you don’t care about a reply. A cast does not even guarantee the server has received the message and, …

I could start a Task , but that’s a lot of “paperwork”

Seems a bit of an exaggeration.