So far, so good

It is Mao's journey of a thousand miles, it begins with one step. So far, most problems have been resolved by throwing enough time and hard work at them.
The next problem - a recalcitrant radio button that refuses to pick up its value:

<%= f.label :verhorcut, "horizontal" %> <%= f.radio_button :verhorcut, 0 %>
<%= f.label :verhorcut, "vertical" %> <%= f.radio_button :verhorcut, 1 %>

there is a field called verhorcut - it is returning the correct value, but so far seem unable to pick up a value for it. In the schema it is a boolean so have tried "0", 0 and "false" but nothing so far.
Keep plodding away.

Next on the agenda - some proper unit testing.