Reply to Newbie project

Alright guys, Ive decided I'm going to start a project of expanding my midifighter classic. After a few hours of searching on the community , I'm still left with quite a few questions. (bear with me)

I took a look at The cuban midi crisis tutorial here and he mentions that you can use switches, rotary encoders, or touch strips in the digital input.

In short, I want to know my options. Can I just install 8 (4 analog and 4 digital) extra bits of hardware and run off with an expanded midifighter without any loss? (other than time, lol). I just have no idea if faders can ONLY be analog, if touch strips are super expensive and are a hassle to install, or if there is another option I haven't been introduced to yet (Im just sticking to the 8 though). I just need a bit of a breakdown.

I went ahead and started looking at the analog parts to see what I was getting myself into. There are so many specs, Im afraid of getting the wrong things. I keep on seeing 10k Ohms, but which specs are required for them to function properly, and which ones are just a matter of preference.

I've heard that the linear taper is better, and I have no idea about the length.

thanks guys