Working in Vue to build a JavaScript application (Mathificent) , I get the following error; ERROR in   Error: Child compilation failed:   Module build failed: Error: Final loader (./node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js) didn't return a Buffer or   String

Toward the end of a long sequence of node_module references, it reports:

1 ERROR in child compilations (Use 'stats.children: true' resp. '--stats-children' for more details) webpack compiled with 2 errors

My questions are: what does this all mean, and how do I correct it?  The loader.js module that is referenced in this project has a date of 1985?? However, a  loader.js from 2018, attached to a build that works,doesn't solve the problem.  Also, this project formerly compiled, with some warnings but no errors.  Is  there some mistake I should look for in my components that I am trying to add to the project?