in my opinion its always important to understand the basics, as thats all i understand 
i always try to work out what a code is doing before using it, or i try to make it do something else just to check i understand,
If you are making a cuad copter then im sure the code it comes with will work just fine, and understanding it might be too hard, i dont understand the cuadopters code, they are imense mindfields,
but basically, the esc uses a pulse of 1000us as zero throttle, 1500us as the mid point and 2000us as full, you cna get the servolibrary for arduino and experiment, the esc uses the same codes as a servo,
take the props off before experimenting though