Programmer Guide/Command Reference/DO

The two flavours of the DO command are DO WHILE (or, simply, WHILE), and DO FOREVER (or, simply, FOREVER).

DO WHILE

WHILE condition
   …
END

or

DO WHILE condition
   …
END

Provided that the conditional expression condition holds true, the commands in the block enclosed by the WHILE, or DO WHILE, and the corresponding END statement are repeatedly executed until condition becomes false.

To put it more bluntly: The condition is always tested on the begin of the loop, that is, before executing the respective block of commands. With STx, there is no explicit loop statement checking its condition at the end of the loop, but if this is what you are longing for, you will find relief by combining the FOREVER statement with an appropriate IF, and BREAK, statement.

Note that it is perfectly legal to prematurely leave a loop with a GOTO statement, though, generally, GOTO is considered harmful.

DO FOREVER

The FOREVER, or DO FOREVER, statement starts a, potentially infinite, loop. The commands between FOREVER or DO FOREVER and the corresponding END statement are being executed forever, or until execution of the loop gets interrupted by other means, e.g. by STx crashing, a BREAK statement being encountered, or an EXIT, or a GOTO statement being executed.

FOREVER

or

DO FOREVER

Cave: If you do not use a BREAK, EXIT, or GOTO command for interrupting the loop, it may run for a really long time.