How do I mimic the functionality of "<>"?

Question

The Cell expression for:

<>

is

Cell[BoxData["<>"], "Input"]

However similar expressions are parsed into RowBox(s), for example:

><

Cell[BoxData[RowBox[{">", "<"}]], "Input"]

How do I get expressions like >< to act like <> does?

My bet is you can't. Operators are predefined and I definately hope someone proves me wrong — Rojo, Aug 23 '12 at 23:26
You could probably put something together with InterpretationBox and MakeBoxes — rm -rf, Aug 23 '12 at 23:37
@R.M I will look into it last time I tried to use InterpretationBox I ran into a dead end. — Davorak, Aug 23 '12 at 23:51

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:35

3

Michael Pilat has stated that you cannot create your own compound operators.

You may find some utility in these posts:

edited May 23 '17 at 12:35

Community

answered Aug 24 '12 at 02:18

Mr.Wizard

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 24 '12 at 01:11

Are you interested only in the case of "less than" and "greater than" symbols? Might other variations serve the purpose?

The following parentheses are represented like "<>" (they are represented without using RowBox), regardless of the order of the characters:

parentheses

2 Answers2