As previously mentioned I run evilwm as my window manager. The only way to spawn a new process in it is to hit Ctrl-Alt-Enter, which opens an xterm. So I have a single xterm that I use to launch whatever apps I need (I choose this. I'm aware of many options if I felt the need to point 'n drool to open apps.).

I don't think application authors can do this much, judging by the amount of crap that gets output in this xterm. For example, today I installed evince (I normally use xpdf) to have a look. I launch it by typing evince, up pops the window, I go to the File menu and choose Close. What do I get output in my terminal? The following:

(evince:4105): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_model_foreach: assertion `GTK_IS_TREE_MODEL (model)' failed

(evince:4105): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_list_store_clear: assertion `GTK_IS_LIST_STORE (list_store)' failed

WTF? A 'critical' error for simply starting and exiting the app? It's not the only offender. liferea spews Unhandled property: 12 border-collapse messages, gajim defaults to calling aplay rather than aplay -q so you get a message every time it plays a sound. Does no one else care about this crud? Is it unreasonable if I file wishlist bugs every time I hit an app that does this? Should I just learn to live with it?