> Possibly reduce could be handled in a similar way with a fallback python
> implementation? Otherwise your suggestion of conditionally adding it to __all__
> makes sense to me.

In the meantime I'd expect the import of _functools.reduce to not be wrapped in a try block.  Does that have an impact on coverage?

>> * Should the pure Python partial only be used if _functools.partial is not available?
>> * Should _functools.partial be removed?
>
> What are the main considerations to properly answer these last questions? Performance
> comparison between the implementations, maintainability?

Sorry, the first time through I missed the part of the patch that tries to import _functools.partial _after_ the pure Python version is defined.