title: npm install cannot read package.json
body: <p>I am trying to manage my node package dependencies. I'd like to be able to install all the required dependencies by running a command, and from what I have read, one way to achieve this is using a <code>package.json</code> file and running <code>npm install</code>. So my JSON file looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{
   "name": "Name-Of-The-Thing",
   "description": "The Thing's Name",
   "author": "The Dude &lt;the.dude@dudethinking.com&gt;",
   "dependencies": {
        "mocha":"&gt;= 1.12.0",
        "mocha-phantomjs":"&gt;= 3.1.0",
        "chai":"&gt;= 1.7.2",
        "phantomjs":"&gt;= 1.9.1"
   }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However <code>npm install</code> reports the following error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>npm ERR! Failed to parse json
  npm ERR! Unexpected token ?
  npm ERR! File: C:\Path\To\The\Thing\package.json
  npm ERR! Failed to parse package.json data.
  npm ERR! package.json must be actual JSON, not just JavaScript.
  npm ERR!
  npm ERR! This is not a bug in npm.
  npm ERR! Tell the package author to fix their package.json file. JSON.parse
  
  npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.2.9200
  npm ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "test"
  npm ERR! cwd C:\Path\To\The\Thing
  npm ERR! node -v v0.8.15
  npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.66
  npm ERR! file C:\Path\To\The\Thing\package.json
  npm ERR! code EJSONPARSE
  npm ERR!
  npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
  npm ERR!     C:\Path\To\The\Thing\npm-debug.log
  npm ERR! not ok code 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Anyone know why?</p>