jshell> int a
a ==> 0

jshell> a < 4
| Error:
| illegal start of type
| a < 4
| ^

jshell> int b
b ==> 0

jshell> a < b
| Error:
| reached end of file while parsing
| a < b
| ^

----

Caused by

    t = term(EXPR | TYPE);

In ReplParser.replUnit()

Which causes JavacParser.typeArguments() to fail.