We need to implement propel style accessors for 1.0 and remove the generator_accessors option from Doctrine_Import_Builder. The one major flaw with generate_accessors is that it won't generate accessors for any columns/relations which are inherited from a behavior. I don't see a really good way to fix this. Doctrine should support these style accessors by default and these accessors would be the way that users would override native Doctrine accessors. When $user->first_name is called and a function getFirstName() exists, it will call it instead of the native first_name handler. Same for setters.