Where is the drawback, if you did not use NoTouch, you would have to do it every time.

The drawback is that I need to design my board to do both. But from what you are saying, the additional work is worth it because it reduces the chances of corrupting the boot vector location.

P2 pins 6 and 7 are ok as is if no output from elsewhere ia attcahed I would have the 2 10k resistors there just to feel warm and fuzzy.

True in my case, they go to the input of a peripheral chip.

I like TxD, It is always high when not in use, has a weak pullup and is used, thus no pin is lost.

That makes sense, the serial cable does not need to be hooked up at that point. Regarding the 'weak' pullup, does that mean that I connect it directly to ground or should it be through a resistor?

See Philips appnote AN416

Doh! I skipped all the IAP sections, but we are actually doing IAP on the status byte.