There are two kinds of people. Those who like their accessors and mutators to start with get and set. This is also what PHP-FIG seems to suggest. $unicorn =newUnicorn(); $unicorn->setBirthday("1930-24-12")->setColor("rainbow"); print $unicorn->getAge(); It works well with IDE autocompletion. It is also easy to write API documentation using PHPDoc. Then there are those like me who prefer to leave get and set out. $unicorn =newUnicorn(); $unicorn->birthday("1930-24-12")->color("rainbow"); print...