title: What does it mean when emacs tells me "File mode specification error"?
body: <p>This is the most useless error message I have ever seen. </p>
  
  <p>I think it translates to .. "error".  </p>
  
  <p>The full error message from the <strong>*</strong><em>Messages</em><strong>*</strong> buffer is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>File mode specification error: (wrong-type-argument characterp "string value here")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I think the latter part of that message means that emacs was expecting a character and got a string. </p>
  
  <p>But how do I go about diagnosing just what it means when emacs tells me "File mode specification error" ?    and how do I narrow down where this error is originating? </p>
  
  <p>How are these two errors (file mode error, expecting character and got string) related? </p>