Alex Rivera | Logout

Why stick to get-set and not car.speed() and car.speed(55) respectively?

Asked 2010-01-12T19:27:26.557
12

Apart from unambiguous clarity, why should we stick to:
car.getSpeed() and car.setSpeed(55)
when this could be used as well : car.speed() and car.speed(55)

I know that get() and set() are useful to keep any changes to the data member manageable by keeping everything in one place.

Also, obviously, I understand that car.speed() and car.speed(55) are the same function, which makes this wrong, but then in PHP and also in Zend Framework, the same action is used for GET, POST, postbacks.
In VB and C# there are "properties", and are used by many, much to the disgust of purists I've heard, and there are things in Ruby like 5.times and .each, .to_i etc.
And you have operator overloading, multiple inheritance, virtual functions in C++, certain combinations of which could drive anyone nuts.

I mean to say that there are so many paradigms and ways in which things are done that it seems odd that nobody has tried the particular combination that I mentioned.

As for me, my reason is that it is short and cleaner to read the code.
Am I very wrong, slightly wrong, is this just odd and so not used, or what else?

If I still decide to stay correct, I could use car.speed() and car.setSpeed(55).
Is that wrong in any way (just omitting the "get" )?

Thanks for any explanations.

oop encapsulation setter getter car-analogy
Edit
Report

3 Answers

3

FYI, Objective-C uses car.speed() and car.setSpeed(55) (except in a different syntax, [car speed] and [car setSpeed:55].

It's all about convention.

answered 2010-01-12T19:34:56.290
1

The final benchmarks of your code should be this:

  1. Does it work correctly?
  2. Is it easy to fix if it breaks?
  3. Is it easy to add new features in the future?
  4. Is it easy for someone else to come in and fix/enhance it?

If those 4 points are covered, I can't imagine why anybody would have a problem with it. Most of the "Best Practices" are generally geared towards achieving those 4 points.

Use whichever style works for you, just be consistent about it, and you should be fine.

answered 2010-01-12T19:45:30.733
0

Apart from unambiguous clarity, why should we stick to: car.getSpeed() and car.setSpeed(55) when this could be used as well : car.speed() and car.speed(55)

Because in all languages I've encountered, car.speed() and car.speed(55) are the same in terms of syntax. Just looking at them like that, both could return a value, which isn't true for the latter if it was meant to be a setter.

answered 2010-01-12T19:38:51.697

Your Answer