There is a book called Code. I can't remember who wrote it, but it goes through the basics of a lot of stuff that we (programmers) know and take for granted that people we talk to know also. Everything from how do you count binary to how processors work. It doesn't have anything dealing with programming languages in it (well from what I remember), but it is a pretty good primer. I will admit that I am also of the school that believes you have to know how the computer works to be able to effectively program things for it.

There have already been a bunch of great answers, but for an absolute beginner, I would wholeheartedly recommend Hackety Hack. It was created by the unreasonably prolific why_the_lucky_stiff specifically to provide a BASIC/LOGO/Pascal-like environment for new programmers to experiment in. It's essentially a slick Ruby IDE with some great libraries (flash video, IM, web server) and interactive lessons. It makes a good pitch for programming, as it chose lessons that do fun, useful things. "Hello, world" may not impress right off the bat, but creating a custom IM client in 20 minutes can inspire someone to keep learning. Have fun!

If he is interested than I wouldn't worry about focusing on games or whatnot. I'd just grab that beginners 'teach yourself x' book you were about to throw and give it him and let him struggle through it. Maybe talk about it after and then do another and another. After then I'd pair program with him so he could learn how shallow and lame those books he read were. Then I'd start having him code something for himself. A website to track softball stats or whatever would engage him. For me it was a database for wine back in the day.

在那之后，我会开始真正的书籍，领域设计等。

我建议从C/ c++开始。我发现它是几乎所有其他语言的良好基础。此外，不同版本的BASIC语言最多也会很不可靠，而且与实际的编程没有真正的关联。

我同意Leac的观点。有时候无聊的时候我会玩Scratch。这是一种非常有趣的查看代码的可视化方式。

它的工作原理是，他们给你一堆“积木”(这些看起来像乐高积木)，你可以叠起来。通过堆叠这些块，并与画布(游戏邦注:你可以在此放置精灵和图像)进行交互，你便能够创造游戏，电影，幻灯片等等。这真的很有趣。

当它完成时，你可以直接上传到Scratch网站，这是一个类似youtube的Scratch应用程序门户。不仅如此，您还可以从网站上下载任何提交的内容，并从其他Scratch应用程序中学习或扩展。

如果他感兴趣，那些小细节不就是好地方吗?使用python时，您已经切断了GUI，这样就不会有困惑了。为什么不选择一个项目，一款游戏或其他东西，然后执行它呢?经典的高低数字猜谜游戏可以简单地从命令行中用20-30行代码(当然取决于语言)实现，并为您提供变量、条件、循环和用户输入。