[1] I know you didn't copy these from real code anywhere because they all have typos -- they're missing urlparse/urlretrieve as the first arguments to partial() or prepartial().
Repair treated. Original function: 1. urlparse( urlstring[, default_scheme[, allow_fragments]]) 2. urlretrieve( url[, filename[, reporthook[, data]]]) In action: 1. parseA= prepartial( urlparse, 'ftp', False ) 2. retrieveA= prepartial( urlretrieve, 'temp.htm', callbackA ) Equivalent A: 1. parseAB= partial( urlparse, default_scheme= 'ftp', allow_fragments= False ) 2. retrieveAB= partial( urlretrieve, filename= 'temp.htm', reporthook= callbackA ) Equivalent B: 1. parseAC= lambda url: urlparse( url, 'ftp', False ) 2. retrieveAC= lambda url: urlretrieve( url, 'temp.htm', callbackA ) Examples in gestation; check back in several months; a +fraction; you're on the right track.