reducing the amount of code in ram to free up space

Noted. But really I use long names for important things or what isn't right close to see. I went through a couple years of interpreter basic where variables were single letter with number combinations so yeah, I know how bad it can get. But that was over 30 years ago, "I feel Much Better now" (John Aston Night Court line, I'm saying the old var names were a bit insane), LOL!

Some time I should try 1.01 Arduino as ISP and if it works, switch. There were too many maybes for me with 1.0 when it came out. Some of the improvements like what you show are awfully tempting.