Hi @ll,
inspired by some postings about plugins on zfforum.de, i decided to write a plugin manager class handles my plugins by request. This means, e.g. my Plugin_Auth class does not load, when there is a request on a site which does not need an authentication.
I could write much text now about how to implement the plugin manager in your bootstrap and about the many possibilities and options, but i don't. Feel free to copy the source and edit it if you want.
I would be happy, about some feedback and suggestions for improvement.
source codeAPI