The first time I saw properties was in Eiffel, afterwards adopted by Delphi, which eventually found their way into C# and to many other languages.<p>Comparing to the original implementation of properties in C# (not how they look now), the Java way wasn&#x27;t that different.<p>They just copied what was common C++ and Smalltalk practice back then, whereas Anders obviously had his Delphi experience.<p>Not that they shouldn&#x27;t eventually improve it.