I've run into a confusing issue with template syntax, maybe somebody can help me out. The following two snippets seem like they should be equivalent, but apparently they're not. There must be a reason why, but I have no idea what it could be. Any thoughts?

In a template, this works:

<% control Parent %>
<% if URLSegment == home %>
	<p>foo</p>
<% end_if %>
<% end_control %>

But this does not:

<% if Parent.URLSegment == home %>
	<p>foo</p>
<% end_if %>

The second example returns a blank page and logs this error:

"PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '}' in /private/var/folders/HJ/HJPYl5CrFjSn7+gK6JPhl2pKtAE/-Tmp-/silverstripe-cache-Applications-MAMP-htdocs/.cache.Applications.MAMP.htdocs.themes.mytheme.templates.Page.ss on line 264"

One note - I didn't think the template worked with == thought it needed to be =.

I think that this is a limitation with the parser. Its not able to evaluate Parent.URLSegment *then* do the comparison, it can only evaluate once per statement. You are probably best doing it with the control then the if.