The benefit of an LDIF file is that the administrator can
examine its function. However, the schema can also be extended
programmatically. Programmatic extensions have several merits,
however, an application is opaque; the administrator must trust the
documentation included with the setup application. Use of
programmatic schema extensions may be a barrier to deployment for
applications that use them. A programmatic extension is invariant;
it is a Windows NT executable. The binary cannot be tampered with
unlike an LDIF or .csv file, which can be edited inadvertently or
maliciously. Benefits of an LDIF file include:
Applications can detect and recover from errors and provide
user feedback.
Applications can handle UNICODE without resorting to Base64
encoding.
Applications can leverage Windows Installer setup APIs.
Applications can be signed to establish authenticity.