Probably because the containing file needs to be in HTML format. "Packaging" the client-side script in a HTML comment makes the required parser simpler as it doesn't have to "know" anything specific about the scripting language to parse (i.e. it only needs to know HTML format -- any "foreign" stuff would be packaged as a comment). Once the parsing of the file into respective elements is performed, the script portion could then be passed to the proper scripting agent.

>Hi,
>
>Why is Javascript generated by ASP.NET - at run-time - commented with

<!--  -->

?
>
>For example, I see the following View Page Source:
>
>

><script type="text/javascript">
><!--
>
>var Page_ValidationActive = false;
>if (typeof(ValidatorOnLoad) == "function") {
>    ValidatorOnLoad();
>}
>
>function ValidatorOnSubmit() {
>    if (Page_ValidationActive) {
>        return ValidatorCommonOnSubmit();
>    }
>    else {
>        return true;
>    }
>}
>        // -->
></script>
>