How can I use "<" and ">" in javadoc without formatting?
You can use < for < and > for > .
Recent versions of JavaDoc support {@literal A<B>C}; this outputs the content correctly (escaping the '<' and '>' in the generated HTML).
See http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/javadoc/whatsnew-1.5.0.html
Considering XML is actual code, I believe XML snippets in Javadoc are better suited for the {@code A<B>C} tag rather than the {@literal A<B>C} tag.
The {@code } tag uses a fixed-width font which makes its content standout as actual code.
Escape them as HTML: < and >