title: rails, getting syntax error with coffee script
body: <p>i am trying to do an autocomplete feature in rails using the jquery ui library. however i keep getting syntax errors "Syntax Error: reserved word "function" on line ..."</p>
  
  <p>this is my lessons.js.coffee file</p>
  
  <pre><code>jQuery -&gt;
  
  $(function() {
      function split( val ) {
          return val.split( /,\s*/ );
      }
      function extractLast( term ) {
          return split( term ).pop();
      }
  
      $( "#lesson_tag_name" )
          // don't navigate away from the field on tab when selecting an item
          .bind( "keydown", function( event ) {
              if ( event.keyCode === $.ui.keyCode.TAB &amp;&amp;
                      $( this ).data( "autocomplete" ).menu.active ) {
                  event.preventDefault();
              }
          })
          .autocomplete({
              source: $('#lesson_tag_name').data('autocomplete-source')
              },
              search: function() {
                  // custom minLength
                  var term = extractLast( this.value );
                  if ( term.length &lt; 2 ) {
                      return false;
                  }
              },
              focus: function() {
                  // prevent value inserted on focus
                  return false;
              },
              select: function( event, ui ) {
                  var terms = split( this.value );
                  // remove the current input
                  terms.pop();
                  // add the selected item
                  terms.push( ui.item.value );
                  // add placeholder to get the comma-and-space at the end
                  terms.push( "" );
                  this.value = terms.join( ", " );
                  return false;
              }
          });
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>i read online somewhere that i could replace the word function with ->
  i did that and i stopped receiving the function errors, but then i get other syntax errors such as "Syntax Error: reserved word "var" on line..."</p>
  
  <p>am i doing something wrong?</p>