Regarding the Coffeescript-Javascript difference, Coffeescript and Javascript can be used transparently in node. Once require('coffee-script') is run, the module replaces the require function with one that can load both Coffeescript and Javascript.

This means that if there is a file ./lib/foo.coffee, the following code in bar.js will work:

    require('coffee-script');
    var foo = require('./lib/foo');

Yes, some people may not like Coffeescript anywhere in their project, but this functionality makes it easy to add Coffeescript to an existing Javascript project or use Coffeescript modules as a blackbox in a Javascript project.