`name()` vs. `getName()` naming convention?

Question

I have seen some projects (jsoup for example) are using this new getter/setter naming convention:

String name()
void   name(String value)

instead of old getter/setter convetion:

String getName()
void   setName(String value)

What are positive and negative aspects of each naming convention? When and why you think one should be preferred over the other?

Answer 1

The first example doesn't adhere to the JavaBeans specification [Warning PDF]. There are certain frameworks like Spring, that assume this naming convention, especially when you do something in EL like ${object.name}, which gets translated to object.getName(). This will fail if you don't follow the naming conventions (although there are ways to get around it).

Without getting into a discussion about when/if to use getters/setters, in general it's better to stick with the naming convention because there are fewer surprises that way, especially when you're integrating with third-party libraries or frameworks that expect things to be named according to convention.

Answer 2

Nothing except readability and API style.

Some APIs accept this style and some don't, like Spring injections and JSF can't recognize this syntax (they explicitly require get/set for properties).