diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/data/System/JQueryPlugin.txt b/JQueryPlugin/data/System/JQueryPlugin.txt
index 35f99b90f2..21a8d2cf6e 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/data/System/JQueryPlugin.txt
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/data/System/JQueryPlugin.txt
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ reduce bandwidth and speed up interactive performance.
 |  Release: | %$RELEASE% |
 |  Version: | %$VERSION% |
 |  Change History: | <!-- versions below in reverse order -->&nbsp; |
+|  03 Mar 2010: | made ZonePlugin an optional dependency |
 |  01 Mar 2010: | improved js and css compression using yuicompressor; \
                   improved simplemodal integration to foswiki to create modal dialogs with less additional javascript; \
                   added custom events to textboxlist: <nop>AddValue, <nop>DeleteValue , Reset and Clear |
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Configure/Checkers/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Enabled.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Configure/Checkers/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Enabled.pm
index 19690ce212..9a49ec37b4 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Configure/Checkers/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Enabled.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Configure/Checkers/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Enabled.pm
@@ -12,9 +12,11 @@ sub check {
     my $warnings;
 
     if ( $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{JQueryPlugin}{Enabled} ) {
-        if ( !$Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{ZonePlugin}{Enabled} ) {
-            $warnings .= $this->ERROR(<<'HERE');
-JQueryPlugin depends on ZonePlugin, which is not enabled.
+        if ( not exists &Foswiki::Func::addToZone ) {
+            $warnings .= $this->NOTE(<<'HERE');
+ZonePlugin is not enabled. With ZonePlugin, JQueryPlugin can optimise the
+placement of <code>&lt;script&gt;</code> tags in the rendered XHTML for better
+web browser page load performance.
 HERE
         }
     }
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin.pm
index 31bd1e6f99..9895d56dd8 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin.pm
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 
 =begin TML
 
@@ -415,4 +416,26 @@ sub handleJQueryPlugins {
   return $theHeader.join($theSeparator, @result).$theFooter;
 }
 
+=begin TML
+
+---++ ourAddToZone($zone, $tag, $text, $requires)
+
+This is a simple wrapper to call Foswiki::Func::addToZone() if available, or
+Foswiki::Func::addToHead() otherwise (in which case, everything is added to head)
+
+=cut
+
+sub ourAddToZone {
+  my ($zone, $tag, $text, $requires) = @_;
+         
+  if (not exists &Foswiki::Func::addToZone) {
+    Foswiki::Func::addToHEAD($tag, $text, $requires);
+  } else {
+    Foswiki::Func::addToZone($zone, $tag, $text, $requires);
+  }
+
+  return;
+}
+
+
 1;
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/DEPENDENCIES b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/DEPENDENCIES
index 868ababf65..95416acf7a 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/DEPENDENCIES
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/DEPENDENCIES
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-Foswiki::Plugins::ZonePlugin,>=1.0,perl,Required.
+Foswiki::Plugins::ZonePlugin,>=1.0,perl,Optional
 
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/FOSWIKI.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/FOSWIKI.pm
index 58da29400f..984b916e00 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/FOSWIKI.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/FOSWIKI.pm
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::FOSWIKI;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 use Foswiki::Func;
 use base 'Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugin';
 
@@ -89,8 +90,8 @@ HERE
 
   my $footer = "<script type='text/javascript' src='%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/plugins/foswiki/$js'></script>\n";
 
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('head', 'JQUERYPLUGIN::FOSWIKI', $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN');
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', 'JQUERYPLUGIN::FOSWIKI', $footer, 'JQUERYPLUGIN');
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('head', 'JQUERYPLUGIN::FOSWIKI', $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN');
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', 'JQUERYPLUGIN::FOSWIKI', $footer, 'JQUERYPLUGIN');
 
 }
 
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/GRID.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/GRID.pm
index f2a6c51040..423d2bc83a 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/GRID.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/GRID.pm
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::GRID;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 
 use base 'Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugin';
 use Foswiki::Form ();
@@ -85,7 +86,7 @@ sub init {
     unless -f $Foswiki::cfg{PubDir}.'/'.$localePath;
 
   my $header .= "<script type='text/javascript' src='$Foswiki::cfg{PubUrlPath}/$localePath'></script>\n";
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID::LANG", $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::UI');
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID::LANG", $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::UI');
 }
 
 =begin TML
@@ -221,7 +222,7 @@ jQuery(document).ready(function(){
 </script>
 HERE
 
-    Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID::$gridId", $jsTemplate, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID');
+    Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID::$gridId", $jsTemplate, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::GRID');
 
     my $result = "<table id='$gridId'></table>";
     $result .= "<div id='$pagerId'></div>" if $thePager eq 'on';
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugin.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugin.pm
index fc0c28b362..1a9f500058 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugin.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugin.pm
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugin;
 use Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugins ();
 
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 
 =begin TML
 
@@ -120,9 +121,9 @@ sub init {
     }
   }
 
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('head', "JQUERYPLUGIN::".uc($this->{name}), $header, join(', ', @dependencies))
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('head', "JQUERYPLUGIN::".uc($this->{name}), $header, join(', ', @dependencies))
     if $header;
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::".uc($this->{name}), $footer, join(', ', @dependencies))
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::".uc($this->{name}), $footer, join(', ', @dependencies))
     if $footer;
 
   return 1;
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugins.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugins.pm
index 285e7fe8a2..30edb42e45 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugins.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/Plugins.pm
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugins;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 
 our @iconSearchPath;
 our %iconCache;
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ sub init () {
   $footer .= "\n<script type='text/javascript' src='%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/jquery.noconflict.js'></script>"
     if $Foswiki::cfg{JQueryPlugin}{NoConflict};
 
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', 'JQUERYPLUGIN', $footer);
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', 'JQUERYPLUGIN', $footer);
 
   # initial plugins
   createPlugin('Foswiki'); # this one is needed anyway
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/TOGGLE.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/TOGGLE.pm
index 70e1f428c3..b3323e7bb5 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/TOGGLE.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/TOGGLE.pm
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::TOGGLE;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 use base 'Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugin';
 
 =begin TML
@@ -95,7 +96,7 @@ sub handleToggle {
   my $cmd = "function() {\$('$theTarget').each(function() {\$(this).is(':visible')?\$(this).$showEffect:\$(this).$hideEffect;});return false;}";
   my $toggleId = "jqToggle".Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugins::getRandom();
 
-  Foswiki::Func::addToZone("head", "JQUERYPLUGIN::TOGGLE::$toggleId", <<"HERE", 'JQUERYPLUGIN::TOGGLE');
+  Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone("head", "JQUERYPLUGIN::TOGGLE::$toggleId", <<"HERE", 'JQUERYPLUGIN::TOGGLE');
 <meta name="foswiki.jquery.toggle.$toggleId" content="{id:'$toggleId', onclick:$cmd}" />
 HERE
 
diff --git a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/VALIDATE.pm b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/VALIDATE.pm
index 6ebeb248ae..fd0b800d80 100644
--- a/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/VALIDATE.pm
+++ b/JQueryPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/JQueryPlugin/VALIDATE.pm
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 package Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::VALIDATE;
 use strict;
+use warnings;
 
 use base 'Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::Plugin';
 
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ sub init {
   my $messageFile = $Foswiki::cfg{PubDir}.'/'.$messagePath;
   if (-f $messageFile) {
     $header .= "<script type='text/javascript' src='$Foswiki::cfg{PubUrlPath}/$messagePath'></script>\n";
-    Foswiki::Func::addToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::VALIDATE::LANG", $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::VALIDATE');
+    Foswiki::Plugins::JQueryPlugin::ourAddToZone('body', "JQUERYPLUGIN::VALIDATE::LANG", $header, 'JQUERYPLUGIN::VALIDATE');
   }
 
 }