"Imagine someone at your work insisting that Java and Javascript are the same language."

This is a rather poor analogy. Someone confusing Java and Javascript might believe they can paste their Javascript code into a Java program and have it work. Nothing of this nature will result from confusing clips and magazines. A shooter isn't going to expect to be able to use their Mosin-Nagant clips with their PSL, any more than they would expect for the PSL magazines to be valid replacements for their Winchester 1895 magazines.

It is incorrect, but it's not all that bad. 95% of the time, it is clear from context; the remaining cases primarily concern weapons with a fixed magazine, for which the user probably does know the difference.

No true Scotsman... Really - this is a matter of taste (what slang you prefer). As a former arms dealer / in a family of government weapons contractors and servicemen, we all use "clip" as slang.

It's like everyone calling car wheels "rims"

You're referring to "stripper clips" that were invented before guns had removable springed magazines. Those are a type of clip (and lead to the term), however the slang term clip doesn't refer to pistol magazines - it's merely slang for a magazine. It's a common misconception and what I was responding to.

In fact, the internal pistol magazine of a C96 pistol is still a magazine, but it loaded by a stripper clip, and some guns like the Japanese Type 3 are fed directly from stripper type clips - but those aren't "speedloaders" as the article suggests.(To juxtapose the concepts completely...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripper_clip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C96_pistol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_3_Heavy_Machine_Gun