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The programming language Forth  
About the compile-time and run-time behavior of IF THEN BEGIN etc.
 Control structures I

1. How to do it in the simplest possible way

First the data, then the code. This Forth ground rule is also valid for conditional branching in programs. A flag on the stack is the 'data' for the 'operators' IF or UNTIL, who decide if there is to be a jump or not. In many programming languages it goes like this: 
IF       \ Decide flag value of 'cold'.
 cold    \ Formulate flag
THEN     \ Leave construct when flag=false
 coat-on \ Conditionally executed code
ENDIF    \ End; could be named ENDTHEN
In Forth, deciding the flag value is not part of the construct. Only the operator IF and its closure THEN are present. The programmer is to make sure a flag is waiting: 
( cold?    \ flag on stack )
IF         \ On 'false', jump to THEN
 coat-on   \ Conditionally executed code 
THEN       \ End; could be named ENDIF
The backward jump with UNTIL has its counterpart in Forth: 
BEGIN      \ Begin
 ... warm? \ The programmer makes sure 
           \ that this code produces a flag
UNTIL      \ On 'false', jump back to BEGIN
( coat-off )
These constructs can be nested. When done cleanly, e.g.
... BEGIN ... IF ... THEN ... UNTIL ...
this is called structured programming.

In ... BEGIN ... IF ... UNTIL ... THEN ...
Forth will protest when encountering UNTIL, because the IF has not finished yet.

In ... IF ... IF ... THEN ... THEN ...
the first THEN attaches to the second IF.