I use
tint2 as a panel with OpenBox for my desktop and noticed that it was a Google Summer of Code project from 2009. The upstream author added additional features (Launcher) which has been available for several years.
Tint2 Configuration
My sense is the svn code is fairly stable as it has been incorporated into Debian testing (Wheezy) with only one warning patch about the configuration wizard not being able to save. ArchBang and CrunchBang are also using the svn release.
I emailed the OBSD port maintainer to see if there was any intent to update. The maintainer is active and busy (In a Ph.D program and maintains multiple ports) and I am going to give him a couple of weeks before re-emailing with an updated port.
With that background my question;
If I were to try to upgrade the port myself, after studying the porter's handbook, it looks easiest to pull the svn source and the patch from the Debian repositories. Otherwise subversion would become a build dependency. Is this acceptable or does the community prefer to get the original source?