I created a coffee file called list.coffee with:

    var list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

When I run `coffee list.coffee` I get:

    /home/****/Code/coffee/thing.coffee:1:1: error: reserved word 'var'
    var list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
    ^^^

The coffeescript interpreter is standalone and does not turn it in to JS.