Markdown as a Native Google Drive Doctype

I have been maintaining some presence in GitHub for awhile now. For those who know, GitHub -- among many other programming-related portals -- uses .md aka Markdown format for readme files. Markdown is really handy for structured text. In fact, I prefer it to a Word file.

Now, let's say that you want to work on a file within a community. For this you would normally share a file -- say, make it public in your Google Drive -- and let other people edit it on their side. Works just fine with all the traditional Google Drive formats. Not with .md files until now.

Actually, this is a lie. Apparently, Google Drive DOCTYPES can be extended. See this:

That StackEdit doctype in the list is what I found in the list under "Connect More Apps". There list of special doctypes is very list, actually. I did not really look at all the others.

It is a bit weird on the first run -- that's when you have to be careful to allow popups and let StackEdit initiate the 3-way OAuth handshake to become an authorized app for your GoogleDrive, but after that it will work the same as any other application. Except it is closer to a WYSIWYG HTML editor because the concept of input is that of a markdown, by definition.

The problem of sharing your .md files with people who do not have Google accounts remains unsolved. It is possible with native doctypes but .md (actually, x-markdown mime) will require you to log in and install the application (3-way handshake needs an account).

So, summarizing

(1) StackEdit as native doctype in Google Drive -- OK
(2) .md files shared publicly for community edits (sharing) -- OK
(3) Sharing with people who do not have Google accounts -- FAILED


Home the (3) becomes possible is the future.