> So defprop and defun definitions in Maxima are roughly the same thing,
> just done using different definition styles? If so, is there any
> reason not to modernize the defprop style to something more readily
> recognizable to modern lisp coders?
Maxima does not use defprop to define functions--in fact, that no
longer works, since the function value of a symbol is no longer on the
property list.
Maxima does use defprop to define properties, e.g. (DEFPROP MNCTIMES T
ASSOCIATIVE). defprop is just the quoted form of putprop: (defprop a
b c) == (putprop 'a 'b 'c).
I think you are thinking about defmfun. That is specific to Maxima
and is used for only one reason: to convert old-style nargs
definitions to new-style ones. I don't know if this is needed any
more, or if all old-style nargs definitions (which look like (defmspec
fnc n ...) instead of (defun fnc (&rest l) ...)) exist.
-s