These conversion programs turn the programmer's source code, which is what the programmer writes, into machine language (machine code). See assembly language, compiler and interpreter.

New tools targeted at assembly language programmers, such as HLA, RadASM (an integrated development environment) and OllyDbg (a machine language debugger), are slowly providing the advanced ...

No matter which programming language you use, the end result is machine code, or assembly language. Knowing something about the end result of your code is of obvious benefit.

It was a time-consuming and error-prone process. Then came assembly language, a slight abstraction but still deeply entrenched in the intricacies of machine instructions.