Gambas is a full-featured object language and development environment built on a BASIC interpreter. Gambas' architecture is inspired by Java. So Gambas is made up of: a compiler, an interpreter, an archiver, a scripter, a development environment, many extension components. Essentially, Gambas is a good starting point to build such application in Ubuntu/Linux, moreover there is a good free e-book that covers most important things about Gambas. It will teach you how to become Gambas Ninja! :p
It has 364 pages divide into 16 chapters:
Chapter 1: Introducing Gambas
Chapter 2: Gambas Language Concepts
Chapter 3: Keywords and Program Flow Control
Chapter 4: Introducing the Gambas ToolBox
Chapter 5: Controls for Gathering Input
Chapter 6: Menus, Modules, Dialogs and Message Boxes
Chapter 7: Handling Strings and Converting Datatypes
Chapter 8: Using Advanced Controls
Chapter 9: Working with Files
Chapter 10: Math Operations
Chapter 11: ObjectOriented Concepts
Chapter 12: Learning to Draw
Chapter 13: Error Management
Chapter 14: Mouse, Keyboard and Bit Operations
Chapter 15: Gambas and Databases
Chapter 16: Global Gambas
Download A Beginner's Guide to Gambas
"GAMBAS Almost Means BASic" :p