Improper value error

[igel-kun]

I'm trying to call simphy as follows:
simphy -S (((d:0.230263,e:0.230263):0.249456,(b:0.226227,a:0.226227):0.253492):0.520281,((d:0.341912,e:0.341912):0.400132,((d:0.169556,c:0.169556):0.179779,(b:0.13384,a:0.13384):0.215495):0.39271):0.257956); -SI f:20 -SP f:100000 -LB f:0.0000002 -LD f:0.0000004 -LT f:0.00000001 -RL f:3 -rg 1 -o fish_simphy
and it's telling me:

Global settings:
--------------------

Trees:
	-Species tree: Fixed
	        --> (((d:0.230263,e:0.230263):0.249456,(b:0.226227,a:0.226227):0.253492):0.520281,((d:0.341912,e:0.341912):0.400132,((d:0.169556,c:0.169556):0.179779,(b:0.13384,a:0.13384):0.215495):0.39271):0.257956);
	-Locus trees: Fixed 3, locus simulations per species tree
	        -Duplication: Genome-wide parameter: Fixed 0.000000e+00,, Rate: Fixed 2.000000e-07,
	        -Loss: Genome-wide parameter: Fixed 0.000000e+00,, Rate: Fixed 4.000000e-07,
	        -Transfer: Genome-wide parameter: Fixed 0.000000e+00,, Rate: Fixed 1.000000e-08,
	        -Gene conversion: Genome-wide parameter: Fixed 0.000000e+00,, Rate: Fixed GG,
	        -Transfer (HGT and GC) sampling strategy: Inversely proportional to the distance
	        -Minimum number of leaves: 1
	        -Minimum number of leaves from different species: 0

	-Gene trees: 1 multilocus coalescent simulations

Parameters:
	-Haploid efective population size: Fixed 100000,
	-Generation time: Fixed 1.000000e+00,
	-Global substitution rate: Fixed 1.000000e+00,
	-Substitution rate heterogeneities
	        -Lineage (species) specific rate heterogeneity gamma shape: No heterogeneity
	        -Gene family (locus tree) specific rate heterogeneity gamma shape: No heterogeneity
	        -Gene tree branch specific rate heterogeneity gamma shape: Genome-wide parameter (hyperhyperparameter) No heterogeneity, locus-tree related parameter No heterogeneity, Gamma parameter(gene-tree related) No heterogeneity
	-Individuals per species: Fixed 20,

Misc parameters:
	-Rooting method epsilon: 0.000001
	-Seed: 3438908345606

I/O options:
	-Output files prefix: fish_simphy
	-Verbosity: 1
	-Stats file: OFF
	-Mapping: OFF
	-Database: OFF
	-Parameterization: OFF
	-Command-line arguments: ON
	-Bounded locus subtrees: OFF
	-Output trees with internal node labels: OFF


Simulation:
-----------

	Improper value sampling the parameter -Ld, Locus tree loss rate. Please, check your sampling settings and try again

Settings error: : improper sampled values
Execute SimPhy with the option -h in order to print the usage information

But the way I'm calling simphy seems to correspond to the example you give in simphy -h:

simphy -sb f:0.000001 -ld f:0.0000005 -lb f:0.0000005 -lt f:0.0000005 -rs 100 -rl U:10,100 -rg 1 -o SimPhy_test -sp f:10000 -su f:0.00001 -sg f:1 -sl U:20,50 -st f:1000000 -om 1 -v 2 -od 1 -op 1 -oc 1 -on 1 -cs 22

Also, by -Loss: Genome-wide parameter: Fixed 0.000000e+00,, Rate: Fixed 4.000000e-07, it seems to have understood what I want: a fixed gene-death rate of 4e-7. So what's up with the error message?

[igel-kun]

Oh wait, I just had a look in the code and it seems to allow only death-rates that do not exceed the birth-rate. This seems unnecessarily restrictive, no? Also, it might be a good idea to tell the user that this is the problem instead of simply saying that his input is "improper", no?