When using resources such as brushes, templates and styles in WPF, they can be specified either as StaticResources 

<Rectangle Fill="{StaticResource MyBrush}" />

or as a DynamicResource

<ItemsControl ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource MyItemTemplate}"  />

Most of the times (always?), only one works and the other will throw exception during runtime. But I'd like to know why:

  • What is the main difference. Like memory or performance implications
  • Are there rules in WPF like "brushes are always static" and "templates are always dynamic" etc.?

I assume the choice between Static vs Dynamic isn't as arbitrary as it seems... but I fail to see the pattern.

.net wpf xaml resources
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