My apologies, I posted out of context...
In agreement in relation to the first point, it doesn't need it, as to multiplexing, the driver already ensures the pins are set prior to writing therefore it already supports multiplexing...
I incorrectly assumed the new driver did do pin assignment before writing as a sketch (using shared/mulitplexed pins), that worked with the old library did not work on the new... I now need to determine the real problem...
Mike