Reading the Faq cleared it up enough, but I did initially try Wrenches notebook refresher, except that since it was the same puzzle answer I could pass it by using the same option every time (which I did like three times since I sometimes misclicked into it) and thus really didn't understand anything.
I'm not sure how hard it is to do, but if you added in like one or two test puzzles, I think it'd help a lot for helping folks understand better.*
*Probably something for far later, but It'd actually be kinda neat to see an extended hacking sidemission/game thing. Break Codes for cash or something. Probably wouldn't be tenable repeatable like unless you had some kind of randomizing thing, and as mentioned I have no idea how hard it is to put these puzzles together.