[WIP] Tutorial: Function call serialization

content/tutorial-pages/2018-12-28/serializaing_function_calls.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+---
+title: Serializing the state of a function call"
+authors:
+    - "Janis Lesinskis"
+date: "2018-12-28"
+tags:
+    - Python
+    - introspection
+    - serialization
+contentType: "blog"
+callToActionText: "Are you looking to improve the architecture of your Python programs? Fill in the form below with some details and one of our Python experts will get back to you."
+hideCallToAction: false
+
+---
+
+It comes up occasionally that you want to serialize the state of a function call. For example in the Persephone project we have a few situations where recording the state of a function call is important for reproducible research as results can only be verified by being rerun.
+
+## Serializing the state of the code
+
+The first challenge is getting a snapshot of the code that was executed at the time. A good choice here is to refer to a Git commit with a SHA hash of the code that's being used. This is possible if you use Git and you are running the code from a Git repository.
+
+If you have an installed package perhaps you can access the version of the package and store that.
+
+## Serializing a function call
+
+The simplest case is where you have a single function call that you wish to serialize the local state of.
+
+```python
+def some_func(msg:str="message", repeat=1, *, padding=0):
+    s = msg*repeat
+    return s.ljust(padding)
+```