indeed.
It would seem that /while requires { }'s around its action, even if there's only a single action, if it's enclosed inside any other { }'s from an if/else/other while.
testloop {
var %a = 1, %b = 1, %c = 1
if (1) { while (%a <= 5) inc -s %a }
while (%a > 1) { while (%b <= 5) inc -s %b | dec -s %a }
{ while (%c <= 5) inc -s %c }
}
Seems all 3 cases fail to loop the incrementing of the variable.