Richard,
So, could anyone point out to me what the heck I might be doing wrong? What precautions should I take to make Squeak work properly, otherwise than stated in the (skimpy) documentation.
Try the following: 1. Download a complete set of all files you need. Make sure these files are ok and not touched by any download problems. I recommend downloading a Stuffit/Zip/Tar file (depending on your preferred platform) since the compressed files usually have checksums. 2. Decompress the files in a single folder. There should be four files now: Squeak1.X.image, Squeak1.X.changes, SqueakV1.sources (the "X" stands for the version) and an executable file (named differently because of platform specifics), e.g. Squeak.exe on Windows. If you download version 1.3 or later you may have two executables - don't worry, the other one is the experimental JITTER VM. 3. (Assuming you're using a graphical UI) Drag the file "Squeak1.X.image" on any executable. 4. Look what's happening. If you get messages such "Squeak could not find the file XXXXXXXX" then you haven't put all of the files in the same folder. In general, you must not get such a message. If you do, something is wrong. 5. Try the graphics/sound examples in the "Welcome to Squeak" Window.
Now you are ready to go. Please note that if you download stuff from the web you should always do binary download. If you don't know how to do this or if the contents of the file downloaded looks spurios try installing the CrLfFileStream.
If it is still not working, drop me a note.
Hope this helps, Andreas