merging new translation into existing translations omits the hashes

[plastikfan]

Following the steps in Translating new messages, step 4 is not working for me as I would have expected. The result of merging the translation file with the pre-existing active file does complete, but the resulting file does not include the hashes.

Just as an experiment, I used the generated file as the active file without the hashes, and the code still worked. So the questioin is, do the active files need to have hashes and is it ok to proceed without them? What if any are the consequences of not including the hashes?