>I think anyone would wants to be truly professional should have some
>level of commenting in the code.

I used to think that comments were always good.

Googling the phrases "comments are lies" or "comments are deodorant" comes up with some interesting hits, such as http://www.free-conversant.com/sdjug/226. IIRC these phrases came from someone involved with Extreme Programming.

With code, assuming the same level of readability I think most people would agree that less code is better than more code. Some say that the very best code possible is no code at all, i.e. design breakthroughs or refactoring result in elimination of unnecessary code.

I think this same concept applies to comments. Ideally, the code should be so clear and "self-documenting" that comments aren't needed. If they're there, they must be maintained. As a new programmer looking at existing code, have you ever been uncertain whether a comment is correct or not?

I believe that as time goes by we'll start to see more advanced code generators and other "intelligent" developer tools which will help with systematic code creation and maintenance. However, comments will be hard to automate and could become "black sheep" in this "brave new world".