method names with fluent interface

Question

I have a Permissions class in Java with methods in fluent style like this:

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somePermissions.setRead(true).setWrite(false).setExecute(true)

The question is, whether I should name these methods set{Property} or only {property}. The latter would look like this:

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somePermissions.read(true).write(false).execute(true)

If I look at these methods separately I would expect that read reads something, but on the other hand it is closer to the intention to have something like named paramaters like in Scala:

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Permission(read=true, write=false, execute=true)

Answer 1

set{Property} is better than just {property} for conveying intent. However since your examples are simple boolean properties, an even better fluent interfance might be:

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somePermissions.AllowRead().DenyWrite().AllowExecute();

Answer 2

This is a classic problem with fluent interfaces. While I agree with @Bozho that setRead() is more self explanatory, the objective in fluent interfaces is to make the whole "sentence" readable as opposed to making individual method calls readable.

Thus, I would go a step further. How about:

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somePermissions.readable().nonWritable().executable()

See also Martin Fowler's post about this topic. He says: "Building a fluent API like this leads to some unusual API habit"