Compilers and assembly programmers serve two different roles. - A compiler is expected to produce reasonably fast code in microseconds. - An assembly programm

Compilers and assembly programmers serve two different roles. - A compiler is expected to produce reasonably fast code in microseconds. - An assembly programmer is expected to produce the fastest code possible in hours or days or weeks. Given hours or days, and development work focused on such a task, compilers would be able to compete with good assembly programmers; it simply hasn't been the focus of much compiler development, because most users don't want to wait three days for their code to compile. What's remarkable is that compilers are able to fairly consistently beat assembly programmers of average skill, while delivering results thousands of times faster.