If anyone is interested, there is an online course in basic Linux programming available at:

http://www.icanprogram.com/

Essentially once enough people have signed up for the course, a new "semester" begins and you are admitted to the mailing list and typically one or two lessons per week are released. There are eighteen lessons in all. The focus is on C, but GUI programming in Tcl is touched upon as well, and there is a class projects at the end of the class.

No grades are given, and the environment if very friendly, so if anyone is interested in getting their feet wet with some programming, this might be a good place to start.

Current lessons are available here:

http://www.icanprogram.com/47ux/main.html

if you want to take a gander at what they look like. Hope this helps someone.

Cheers.