@Terry
Every published library is open, so users can allways "roll their own" variation of the library. I think Tim does a very good job keeping the lib as simple as possible because that means small footprint and performance most of the time. My additions and ideas is just searching the "edge of the possible" 
@Tim
You should use the link to this thread in your library so people can reread the arguments somewhere in the future. e.g. add a header like
//
//Â Â FILE: newPing.cpp
//Â AUTHOR: Tim Eckel
//Â Â DATE: 2012-05-xx
// VERSION: 1.1
//
// PUPROSE: new implementation of ping)))
// LINK: http://...
// HISTORY:
// 1.0: ...
// 1.1: ...