What was the reason for using Javascript to do the server-side rendering (as opposed to another language on the server)? Was it just a preference, or were there some technical reasons?
There were reasons for wanting to use an embedded scripting language in general. Ultimately the choice (at the time) came down to either Lua or JavaScript. There were pros/cons to each approach and in the end JavaScript was chosen mainly because many coming in from the outside would already be familiar with it. Keep in mind that this was before Chrome existed and browser wars had not begun yet... so things were a bit rocky at first, but really it's peen proven to be the right path. Eich's common line -- "Always bet on JS" and all :)
