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.
If only a few units, you can do the initial with clipleads, I use a parrallel programmer.

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?
directly

Erik