Do you know C++ or C? If not search on
Google for C/C++ tutorials.
If you do - start with console programs. These are similar to wind0s console apps - you use a Main() function.
This is a very simple C++ program
To compile this - you need the compile tools that are on your distro's cd.
Save this example into a file and compile it with the command (in the console)
This command will compile the C++ code file "first.cpp" into the program file named first. It will use the file format called "a.out" (by default)
To run this program just type
As for GUI programs do a search on
Google and search for tutorials for this.
I hope this is of some use to you