An Adventure in WINE, Wine Is Not an Emulator.
The previous state of my system. My symptoms. My misunderstanding. The fix.
*** The previous state of my system.
The system is 64-bit Mageia. The patches were up to date, and the x86_64 Architecture of WINE, (WINE64) was installed.
*** My symptoms.
Any windows application launched by clicking on an icon, or menu item; either opened no window, or a blank window that soon closed, or a blank window. Starting a windows application via a command line, showed error messages about missing TrueType fonts. Typical applications were winecfg, winefile, and winemine.
*** My misunderstanding.
WINE64 (x86_64 Architecture of WINE) is for running 64-bit windows applications. It does not support 32-bit windows applications. While almost any Windows application could be compiled for 32-bit, or 64-bit executables; 32-bit is the most commonly available version. WINE (i586 Architecture of WINE) is for running 32-bit windows applications, and it runs on my 64-bit Mageia system.
*** The fix.
WINE64 was deleted from my system.
~/.wine was deleted (from my home directory). [A less brutal delete, and concern for other users might have been desired.]
WINE was installed on my system.
I ran winecfg, and winefile. They were successful. Later, other applications also worked.