Is PIC microcontroller PIC16C72 and PIC16F72 almost the same from a programmer's perspective?
The two chips are almost the same.  They use the same instruction set, so yes, you can execute a program written for C72 on F72.

However, there are differences, some of which could be critical:


The C72 lacks the ability to read the program memory as data.
The C72 is an OTP (One-Time Programmable) chip, not a flash chip.
The C72 has an OPTION and TRIS instruction which the F72 doesn't.


The OPTION and TRIS instructions of the C72, while it explicitly states they should not be used to maintain upward compatibility with future devices (which lack them), they may possibly be used by your compiler, which would stop the code working on the F72.

So yes, you may be able to do it, or you may not.  Better is to use the official Microchip tools (MPLAB-X, XC8) which gives full support for all their chips.