Why do compilers produce assembly code?

Assembly language is converted in to machine language by assembler. Why would a compiler convert high-level language to assembly? Can't it directly convert from the high-level language to machine code?

Other reason for compilers to produce assembly rather than proper machine code are:

• The symbolic addresses used by assemblers instead of hard-coding machine addresses

make code relocation much easier.

• Linking code may involve safety checks such as type-checking, and that's easier

to do with symbolic names.

• Small changes in machine code are easier to accomodate by changing the assembler

rather than the code generator.

StackExchange Computer Science Q#14749, answer score: 20