I was messing around with type-classes (familiarization exercises) when I hit a probably newbie problem. Reducing it to the simplest case... module BinTree ( WalkableBinTree, BT (Branch, Empty) ) where -- n : node type -- d : data item type wrapped in each node class WalkableBinTree n where wbtChildren :: n -> Maybe (n, n) wbtData :: n -> Maybe d -- Simple tree type, mostly for testing data BT x = Branch x (BT x) (BT x) | Empty instance WalkableBinTree (BT x) where wbtChildren (Branch d l r) = Just (l, r) wbtChildren Empty = Nothing wbtData (Branch d l r) = Just d wbtData Empty = Nothing Loading this code into GHCi, I get... Prelude> :load BinTree [1 of 1] Compiling BinTree ( BinTree.hs, interpreted ) BinTree.hs:16:39: Couldn't match type `x' with `d' `x' is a rigid type variable bound by the instance declaration at BinTree.hs:12:32 `d' is a rigid type variable bound by the type signature for wbtData :: BT x -> Maybe d at BinTree.hs:16:5 In the first argument of `Just', namely `d' In the expression: Just d In an equation for `wbtData': wbtData (Branch d l r) = Just d Failed, modules loaded: none. Prelude> I've tried varying a number of details. Adding another parameter to the type-class (for the item-data type) requires an extension, and even then the instance is rejected because (I think) the tree-node and item-data types aren't independent. In any case, I can't understand why those types can't match.