From what I remember coolcnc was based on Puppy Linux.
Barry Krauler, the brains behind Puppy Linux, wrote some really good books back in the day covering assembly for DOS and touched a bit on Windows.
I wrote way more Win32 programs in assembly than any other language, even a couple of vxd's for Windows 95.
I still have my first computer a TRS-80 PC4 sold by Tandy\Radio Shack in Australia more or less a rebranded Casio PB-100. Got to be 40 years old now.
