将点放在嵌套的if中的正确方法是什么

I have the following code that fails to process in the template processor. I believe it is the dot in the if that is causing the parser to terminate early.

{{range Counter .first .last}}
     {{if eq . $.first}}
        first stuff here
     {{else}}
        some stuff here
     {{end}}
     and the remainder here
{{end}}

When I look at the resulting string it stops where the inner 'if' began. I'm thinking there might be an alias of the dot but have not found it. Although the DOC specifically says that the if will not change dot.

This sort of helps...

<eq . $.firstpid>: error calling eq: incompatible types for comparison

I was under the impression that the template system normalized the types. I'll have to look more closely into that.