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@Baggins**
That's more like it, I understood that a lot better, big-time thanks for that

Right, so the data passing through those wires is either a number or tuple.  The decimal format of a number isn't important and the system is rigged so that conversion isn't necessary due to the built-in averaging of a tuple into a number.  That conversion part is one of the main things that was throwing me.  With synth development nodes we need that conversion because the designs can be built in real hardware, but with 3D rendering, I can see the advantage of not needing conversion now you explained it.

I'm still struggling with one thing though.

So a procedural texture outputs a tuple, I get that, and I even get why it's a tuple and not just a number.  But what happens to the original tuple of that texture node if you output that tuple into a node designed to accept a number, and then that node is connected to the root that aways accepts a tuple?

From what you told me, I see it as starting with a tuple, it then gets averaged into a number when it hits a number-based node, then that number-based node outputs the avaraged number into the root nodes tuple input.

And here's the thing; how on earth can the tuple input on the root node make any sense of the original tuple?  It started out as a tuple, but it's not one by the time it reaches the root node, it's just a number cause it got averaged by a number-based node along it's journey to the root node.  How does the root node get at the tuple data when it's been avaraged into a number by the time it reaches the root node?

Before I chew on that stuff you posted, please explain that one to me in as basic manner as you possibly can, because once I get that part as well, I should be able to absorb the other stuff!