Base types are just CPU operand categories, it's convenient for the CPU to process numbers in 8/16/32/64/128 bit representations, but those only crudely approxi

Base types are just CPU operand categories, it's convenient for the CPU to process numbers in 8/16/32/64/128 bit representations, but those only crudely approximate the domain of a function. It's just nicer to be able to statically say "the volume knob is a real-valued number in the closed interval [0, 11] represented as 32 bit floating point" and have the compiler complain if you even could accidentally assign it the floating point representations of -1 or 12 (which are legal in the CPU type but out of domain for all volume functions).