[quote author=Jeff Rowberg link=topic=68210.msg503820#msg503820 date=1312388793]
... As a compromise, I've left the default at 250ms and added an optional "timeout" argument to the tail end of each read* method, so that for those specific actions that might legitimately take a long time, it's easy to specify a longer timeout. You could already have just modified the I2C::readTimeout variable before calling the desired read* method, but that's not very convenient or pretty. This is much better, and I probably should have done it that way in the first place. Yay for helpful ideas from other people![/quote]
I think having a one second default is a better idea. It won't block unless the device doesn't respond and in that case does it matter if the error is returned in one second rather than 250ms? (in the previous code, the error condition would cause it to block indefinitely)
The advantage of a longer default time-out is that inexperienced users won't get false errors when using devices that do take longer than 250ms. Experienced users can increase or decrease the time-out if they want, but it seems more friendly to have a default that minimizes the chance that errors could be reported even when the system if functioning correctly. The longer default time-out has no impact on performance on systems where the I2C devices are responding correctly.