Fortunately, I had applied the patch halfway through the game because I thought it might fix another problem, or I would have been stuck forever! Those letters are actually shorthand for Top-Right, Middle, Bottom-Right, etc. In other words, it's telling you which segments of the LCD display need to be lit up. So, for the left-hand character you must select the symbol that corresponds to segments:
Top-Right, Middle, Bottom-Right, Bottom (looks like a '3' with the top missing)
And the right-hand symbol corresponds to segments:
Bottom-Left, Bottom, Bottom-Right (looks like a small 'u')