Impact of specifying input types on function performance, when referencing arguments from Vector{Any}

OK, this was a bottom up attempt to fix the performance issues I’m seeing - dive into the code to see where allocations happen, and fix them. I’ve decided to also take a top down approach - describe the type of program I’m trying to write, and see what architectural approaches have already been used in this case. If you’re interested, you can read about it here.