Each object can be connected to others in different ways depending on its specific functionalities. It connects via inlets and outlets located around the object box itself. The number of inlets/outlets depends on the objects functions.
A grey cord carries plain data, a yellow cord carries audio signal, and a greenish cable carries video data. Inlets and outlets, if you hover them with your mouse, do specify the type of data, to help you connect properly the objects.
Inlets/Outlets
Hot and cold. This is a great feature of Max since recent times. It specifies the behaviour of the object with the incoming data. If data enters a cold (blue circled) inlet, data won’t be processed until another event occurs. Instead, if data goes into a hot (red) inlet, it is processed immediately, and most likely will produce an output of some sort.
Right to left. Max syntax proceeds right to left. Anything on the patcher is processed from right to left, from top to bottom. This concept, maybe quite abstract now, will become more useful later on, when we need to understand carefully what actions an object performs first, to be able to arrange to our likings and purposes the data flow.